French PM forces 2025 budget through without vote
On February 3rd, new French Prime Minister François Bayrou forced the 2025 budget through without a vote, invoking a constitutional mechanism to bypass lawmakers.
According to Le Monde French Parliament is very divided and with no clear majority has so far been unable to pass the bills. Bayrou justified his controversial decision stating ” No country can live without a budget.”
To pass the bill he invoked Article 49.3 of the constitution allowing the budget bill to be adopted with no vote in the lower chamber. The far Left French political party La France Insoumise have said they will immediately put forward a no-confidence motion, which lawmakers can do when the government uses Article 49.3.
However, the motion has a low chance of being passed after the Socialists decided against backing it.
Speaking to the Assemblée Nationale, Bayrou stated “the hour of truth” has come. He admitted the budget is not perfect but stood by his decision, saying it is nonetheless balanced. The PM also went on to trigger Article 49.3 for a second time, in order to pass part of the social security budget, which Parliament was also yet to make a decision on.
Similarly, Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, left office in a no-confidence vote in December when he used the same article of the Constitution to force through the social security budget.
In January Bayrou successfully convinced the French Socialists to not back a no-confidence motion against him. However, since then the Socialists have broken off talks with Bayrou’s government, after he described an immigrant “submersion” of France, using the same terminology as the far right.
This comes after an improvement in Bayrou’s relations with the left when on January 27th he pledged to save over 4000 teaching jobs that Barnier said he would axe in his budget.
New elections cannot be held until at least one year after the previous polls, meaning a collapse of the new government would plunge France into previously uncharted political waters.
LeMonde, France 24, Maghrebi
