Public finance programming law: Bruno Le Maire calls LR to responsibility

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: STEFANO RELLANDINI / AFP 12:55 pm, September 07, 2023

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, called Thursday The Republicans to the "sense of responsibility" and to vote the law of programming of public finances at the end of September. This law, known by the acronym LPFP, sets the annual deficit and public debt targets for the France until 2027. Rejected last year by Parliament, the text will be presented again in extraordinary session in the last days of September, which would allow the government to use 49.3 to pass it without a vote, unless a motion of censure is adopted - a threat brandished within the Republicans, in opposition.

"I'm not going with the idea that you necessarily need a 49.3"

"If everyone shows openness, sense of responsibility, we can pass this text without 49.3," added the Minister of the Economy. Bruno Le Maire indicated that he would meet in particular with Olivier Marleix, the president of the LR group in the National Assembly: "Let's build a majority on this law of programming of public finances to show that we are responsible," he said. The Economy Minister stressed that such a programming law had been adopted "in all the other countries of the euro zone".

>> READ ALSO - Finance Act 2024: these areas that the government will target to make savings

"I hope that the France also has the same text," continued the number two of the government. "It is in our collective interest to show the credibility of our spending and revenues to our compatriots, to our European partners and incidentally to the markets that allow us to raise the money we need to finance our debt," he said.

A new parliamentary rejection would cause the France to lose ten billion euros of European funds in 2023 and eight billion in 2024, according to the government.