On Monday morning, November 4, Michel Barnier gathered his ministers in a seminar with the aim of presenting, between now and the end of the year, proposals that will be applied over three years. The members of the government arrived in Matignon before nine in the morning to spend a morning of work.
The Prime Minister, concerned since his appointment two months ago by the urgency of preparing the budget for 2025, wants to show that he plans beyond this deadline. And this, without worrying about the sword of Damocles of voting a motion of censure in December, when he will probably assume the responsibility of his government to definitively approve these dangerous finance bills.
“Five-year vision, three-year action”This is Matignon’s new leitmotif, referring to 2029, the date set for France’s return to European budget standards, and to 2027, the next presidential elections.
Lack of unity
After a first seminar in September to prepare his general policy declaration, Michel Barnier wants, through this second “collective meeting”then a third in December, which led to “concrete proposals” to respond to “ priorities of the French » which will be presented in an action plan, according to those around you.
On Monday’s menu for the forty ministers, five topics: State-communities, work-social benefits, immigration-integration, overseas and simplification.
A lead minister will manage each issue, and the goal will be to define “one or two priority measures” according to Matignon.
Two Ministers must intervene in the current context: the Minister Delegate for Europe, Benjamín Haddad, will begin the “European issues”, followed by the Minister of Economy, Antoine Armand, who will report on the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The seminar will conclude with lunch. “with the objective of cohesion”while the “common ground” is illustrated by their disagreements on a number of issues.
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This lack of unity is observed almost daily in the Assembly on budget texts that are poorly defended or even questioned by the majority. The Government has been defeated on numerous occasions in fiscal matters, the latest example is the review of business contributions rejected on Thursday by the Macronists, the right and the National Group (RN).
“It is not because we have an opinion that we are an opponent”
“It is necessary that, in the pack that formed around Michel Barnier, we try to define what we agreed to so that it provokes a form of mobilization”recognized on Sunday the leader of the MoDem deputies, Marc Fesneau, in “Political questions” (France Inter, the worldFrance Télévisions), asking the government to “take into account parliamentary debates”for example the perpetuation of the additional tax on high incomes voted for by the left and the MoDem.
“It is not because we have an opinion that we are an opponent, it is not because we are not completely aligned in a row that we are an opponent”It put it into perspective.
On Monday, deputies will resume the examination of the revenue part of the Social Security budget with the result of a probable rejection, which would be equivalent to rejecting the entire text.
In that case the expenditure aspect would not be examined, which would save the government a lost discussion on postponing until 1Ahem July of the indexation of pensions, reviled everywhere.
Deputies will then return to debate the revenue part of the state budget, while some 1,500 amendments remain to be debated. A rejection is expected, as in committee, where the majority will not support the billions of euros of additional income voted for by the deputies of the New Popular Front.
Also in this case, a red light would carry the complete text that would pass to the Senate in its original version, before a mixed commission so that the two chambers can try to agree on a common version.
However, at the end of the process, the government should not be able to escape a 49.3 to approve its two budget texts, since the left and the RN have already announced their intention to vote against.
