On Wednesday, just before beginning the budget review, the members of the finance committee took the decision, unanimously, to request that a commission of inquiry be granted powers to determine the causes of the decline in the public deficit. Its president, Eric Coquerel (La Francia insoumise), had expressed this wish already the week of October 7. The Finance Commission will request these powers for six months, in order to investigate the “gaps in fiscal and budgetary forecasts” for the years 2023 and 2024, while public deficit forecasts for 2024 increased from 4.4% at the beginning of the year to 6.1% of GDP at the beginning of October.
The members of this commission will question under oath current or former figures responsible for public finances, such as the former Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, who remained in Bercy for more than seven years, but also former prime ministers, such as Elisabeth Borné and Gabriel Attal.
“The numbers, the facts, the truth”
The request for creation must now be sent to the president of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance), and then notified to the government, group and commission presidents, who will have a short period to object. The Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, was in favor, during questions to the Government on Tuesday, of a commission of this type, demanded by both the left and right opposition, hoping that it can “ddetermine the numbers, the facts, the truth » on the situation of public accounts.
On October 8, Eric Ciotti, with his group, the Union of Rights for the Republic (UDR), also declared that he wanted to open a commission of inquiry on the issue and had used his “right of lottery” to do so. “, which allows any political group to include on the agenda the opening of a commission of inquiry. At the conference of group presidents on Tuesday an agreement was reached between these two demands. “We agreed that there was a kind of prerogative of the finance committee that it could acquire the powers of a commission of inquiry. (…). “We decided to merge our two approaches”Eric Ciotti explained during a press conference the same day.
The leader of the UDR deputies should be appointed rapporteur of the oppositions and Mathieu Lefèvre, deputy of the Renaissance, rapporteur of the relative majority. Work is expected to begin “end of November” EITHER “beginning of December” according to Eric Coquerel, who would be president.
