In the turbulent budget debates that the National Assembly has been experiencing since mid-October, one thing remains constant: the New Popular Front (NFP) is united. New example, on Wednesday afternoon, October 30, during the vote on the review of employer contributions provided for in the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS): the left, united, found itself “supporting” the text facing a divided coalition government but which, by majority, suppressed the provision.
“It is true that we are the most coherent block, the most homogeneousproclaims the president (La Francia insumisa, LFI) of the finance committee, Eric Coquerel. 99% of us vote the same, so you always know that our votes will be there, while the others won’t. This gives us very significant strength. » Because if this time the NFP deputies lost, in the last fifteen days they have won a lot.
Although the left alliance, like the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) before it, is weakened – even threatened with disappearance – by its divisions on numerous issues, this demonstrated unity may be surprising.
“It remains because we have a convergence of views on economic and social issues that we form a union. This is what makes this alliance credible.”assures the socialist deputy for Eure Philippe Brun, coordinator of his group on the finance bill (PLF) for 2025. In his words, “rebels”, socialists, communists or environmentalists are “on the same side of the barricade of salaries and tax justice.” “It is not with the institutions, the sovereign or the international that we are most aligned with. »
During the general discussion on the first part of the PLF (the one relating to income), on October 21, all the NFP deputies present, including the socialists, were standing to applaud the statement of the chairman of the finance commission, Eric Coquerel, who had just assumed the accusation of “tax carnival” launched by the Macronists: “It’s true, it is a carnival in the sense of the Ancien Regime. That is, when an extreme minority rightfully monopolized wealth. Carnival was the time when the world of the time was turned upside down: the poor, powerless, took the place of the rich and powerful. This is our version of the budget. »
Symbolic measures
The NFP did not come to the budget debate with a counter-budget but with ten common proposals, transformed into amendments approved by the four groups. Half has not yet been examined, but the left has already obtained several victories with symbolic measures, such as the reinforcement of the “exit tax”, a tax created in 2011 to stop the fiscal exile of taxpayers, voted in the session (with the support of the National Assembly and the right) on October 24.
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