French government to use constitutional powers to force through budget
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Loading... - Andreas Vogel
- 03 Nov 2022
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The French government is to use special constitutional powers to force through its 2023 budget without a parliamentary vote, sparking accusations of “authoritarianism” from the opposition and underlining President Emmanuel Macron’s weakened domestic position since his centrist grouping lost its absolute majority in elections last spring.
“It is our responsibility to make sure our country has a budget”, the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, told parliament as she put an end to several days of heated debate over the government’s pro-business budget, which ministers said would protect people from the cost of living crisis while avoiding tax increases.
The leftwing opposition bloc in parliament announced it would call for a no-confidence motion in the government, something seen as largely symbolic and having little chance of passing.
The standoff was the first real parliamentary headache for Macron since France was plunged into an unprecedented form of political deadlock in June’s parliament elections.
Only weeks after Macron was re-elected for a second term in April, beating the far-right Marine Le Pen, his centrist grouping lost its absolute majority in parliament, falling about 40 seats short of the number required to pass laws.
Le Pen’s National Rally is now the biggest single opposition party in parliament, while the hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed is the biggest leftwing party in a broad coalition known as the Nupes, which includes the Socialists and Greens. Along with the rightwing Les Républicains, all opposition groups had announced as early as this summer that they would not vote for the budget, leaving what Macron’s party said was no choice but to use a rare form of constitutional decree to push it through. Read More...
