French premier François Bayrou forced approval of his 2025 budget this week, using a special constitutional power known as Article 49.3 to adopt two financing packages without a vote by the lower house. Avoiding the fate of his predecessor Michel Barnier, who failed in December in a similar bid to use this constitutional article, Bayrou comfortably beat back two no-confidence votes. While he leads a minority government not supported by a majority of legislators, in this case it benefited from the abstention of both the center-left Parti Socialiste and the far-right bloc grouped behind Marine Le Pen. With the upper house’s green light on Thursday, the budget awaits final approval from the Constitutional Council before entering into effect.
The lack of any clear majority in the National Assembly meant that the spending cuts stipulated in the budget are relatively modest, with the main chunk of 2025 savings coming from temporary windfall tax increases. In the lower house, Bayrou’s coalition, which brings together the Macronists and the center-right Les Républicains, faces off against the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) and a far-right alliance behind Le Pen, with each positioning itself for possible fresh parliamentary elections this summer. But as the call to reduce deficits increasingly sets the parameters of public debate, this week’s votes mark the clearing of a first hurdle in what government officials are presenting as a long austerity campaign.
“The budget that we’ll adopt today is only the beginning of the beginning of the start of the work we’re going to do,” said Bayrou on Wednesday, shortly before the vote on the two no-confidence motions. Having compared France’s budgetary situation to a “Himalayan”…
Auteur: Harrison Stetler
