Budget: end of revenue review in the Assembly, crucial vote to follow on Tuesday

The deputies came to the end, during the night from Friday to Saturday, of the first part of the state budget: the initial text of the government was largely reworked, with new taxes galore, which the Assembly must still validate by a general vote on Tuesday.

Shortly before 3:00 a.m., the National Assembly finally completed the examination of the “revenue” part of the finance bill, and the more than 3,000 amendments tabled by the deputies.

A project started on October 21, then interrupted during discussions on the Social Security budget, and resumed on Wednesday in the hemicycle, where the government’s copy was profoundly transformed.

“We have not deleted anything at all, we are still in the EU”, agreed the centrist deputy Charles de Courson, general rapporteur of the budget who for his part estimated the new revenues at “12 billion counting”, the rest being “probably Euro-incompatible, or unconstitutional”.

Figure logically contested by the president of the Finance Committee, the Insoumis Éric Coquerel, who retains the “satisfaction” of having “found tens of billions of new revenue” and thus “lowered the deficit to less than 3%” of the GDP.

Acts of rebellion

In fact, the left has rolled out a good part of its program for the last legislative elections. With the help of new taxes on “super profits”, “super dividends”, share buybacks, “large digital companies”, multinationals and even the assets of billionaires.

The government could only note the damage: of the 41 articles in its initial text, a dozen were simply deleted by the Assembly.

And not the least: end the increase in the electricity tax, the increase in the automobile penalty and the surcharge on large companies, each time with the votes of the right and the center, although supposed to support the executive .

Apart from these acts of rebellion, the “common base” was especially conspicuous by its absence throughout the debates, incapable of mobilizing even during the symbolic vote on the European contribution.

The central bloc even appeared divided over its traditional tax taboo. Thus, the Modem voted to make permanent the surtax on high incomes, which the government only wanted limited to the next two years. Likewise, the Horizons group is behind the initiative to cut back on the research tax credit, another Macronist totem.

Often in the position of arbiter, the National Rally has sometimes tilted the balance to the left. Like Friday to pass a tax on the importation of beef, in order to mark a shared refusal of the European free trade agreement with South American Mercosur.

“Feeling of waste”

At the end of the financial year, there are few reasons for satisfaction for the executive, which managed to maintain the increase in VAT on gas boilers and to introduce by amendment an increase in the tax on plane tickets, at price, however, of several concessions.

It remains to be seen whether all this will have been of any use. The entire “revenue” section must in fact be the subject of a solemn vote in the hemicycle on Tuesday afternoon.

As it stands, this “fiscal smear” is “not voteable as it stands,” said Macronist David Amiel. “Feeling of waste” also for the head of the Modem group, Marc Fesneau, who estimated that the rejection of the article on the EU was enough “to invalidate this budget”.

Conversely, the left “will obviously vote for it”, predicted Mr. Coquerel, wondering about “what the RN will do” after having adopted or abstained on numerous measures.

Several executives of the far-right group, however, made it known off the microphone that their group was moving towards a vote against, particularly given the total amount of the tax increases.

This gives credence to the possibility of a rejection of the text, which would then be transmitted to the Senate in its initial version, without even examining the “expenditure” section of the state budget. On the other hand, if the deputies approve this first part, they will immediately move on to the discussion of the credits allocated to the various missions of the State, with the obligation to reach a conclusion before the deadline of November 21.