A new hiccup for the macronists without an absolute majority: the National Assembly rejected the 2021 budget settlement bill on Wednesday August 3, a step usually quite banal for the validation of public accounts.
The deputies rejected the text by 173 votes against 167, via a coalition of oppositions.
This bill is a “
technical text which reviews the past financial year and is only intended to take note of its execution
”.
Its rejection "
has no consequence on the budgetary programming for the year 2023, nor on the State's ability to honor its budgetary commitments for the year 2022
", relativized the Ministry of Public Accounts.
The government was counting on a last green light from the National Assembly during this final reading, after the rejection of the text in the Senate, where the right pinned the "
very degraded" situation of public accounts
“, with a public deficit of 6.4% of GDP in 2021. After the vote against by the National Assembly, with six votes, the government could reintroduce a settlement bill in the Council of Ministers.
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On Wednesday, the right and left oppositions jointly criticized a text presented with "
delay
", opposing it for different reasons.
The right LR repeated through the voice of deputy Patrick Hetzel that “
the alert rating on public finances has been exceeded for a long time
”.
“
Economic wanderings
”
On the far right, RN Bryan Masson accused the Macronist majority of "
economic wanderings
" between "
taxes on the middle and working classes
" and "
flaring inflation
".
On the left, the socialist Philippe Brun spoke of the "
Coué method
" of the government which "
fell asleep
", judging the "
42 billion euros disbursed
" in 2021 insufficient for the government's recovery plan of 100 billion euros .
The Insoumis David Guiraud "
recognized that the Covid episode forces a certain indulgence
".
But "
the richest are contributing less and less to the state budget
“, he denounced, while the ecologist Christine Arrighi pointed to
the climate “inaction
” of the executive.
In the hemicycle, the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure defended a year 2021 of "
recovery
" thanks to a "
growth of 6.8% (of GDP)
", with an "
exceptional recovery effort
" and "
protection
".
The government praised the favorable employment situation and a “
historically low youth unemployment rate
”.
The general rapporteur for the budget Jean-René Cazeneuve (Renaissance) again described an “exceptional” year 2021 for the public accounts due to the
Covid
, with the financing of partial activity.
