The government under pressure. Officials of the Socialist deputies and the National Rally indicated Thursday that they were in turn considering tabling motions of censure to sanction the budgetary slippage, if the Republicans do not carry out their threat. France's deficit could reach 5.1% or 5.2% of GDP in 2024, compared to 4.4% initially in the new annual stability program.
Brandished for three weeks by Eric Ciotti and his troops, the threat of government censorship in response to soaring public deficits is gaining traction.
“If the Republicans do not submit one, we are considering putting pressure on by submitting one,” said the number two of the RN group in the Assembly, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, on RMC.
The far-right party, which has already announced that it would vote for a motion tabled by LR, knows that its own initiative would have “little chance of being voted on”. But "we are not going to wait for Saint-Glinglin's Day either", added the elected official from the Somme, even believing that there is "no reason to wait for the European (
elections
)" to move on to the action.
Towards a PS-LFI alliance?
On the left too, “it is not unlikely that we will table” a motion of censure, declared the boss of PS deputies Boris Vallaud on France Inter. However, his group only has 31 members, when a motion requires at least 58 signatories. However, he could rely on La France insoumise, which also threatens censorship if the government does not present an amending budget.
Similarly demanding the examination in Parliament of a finance law “before the summer”, Boris Vallaud did not reveal his position on a motion tabled by the right, but “we are not excluding anything”.
At this stage, in addition to the RN, the communists and LFI have already indicated that they would vote for it, which is not enough to obtain the 289 votes necessary to bring down the government. “The execution of the 2024 budget will have nothing to do with the one adopted. Bruno Le Maire, you cannot escape a PLFR (
amended finance bill)
without 49.3. Failing this, a motion of censure on your budgetary policy will be inevitable,” denounced LFI deputy Éric Coquerel on his X account (ex-Twitter) this Tuesday.
A risk far from being ruled out since “there will obviously be 49.3 in the budget which will arrive in the fall” and “the oppositions always vote against”, predicted on TF1 the head of the Renaissance group Sylvain Maillard.
The executive is working on savings measures that will make it possible to reduce public deficits. Reform of unemployment insurance, de-reimbursement of health care... the Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave has already mentioned the sum of 20 billion euros to be found, in addition to a first plan of 10 billion euros already announced . Before the High Council of Local Finances this Tuesday, Bruno Le Maire called on local authorities, which he suspects of having been too expensive, to make shared efforts.