“It’s off topic” … Why the majority is tense on inheritance rights

It’s been a busy comeback to say the least. The National Assembly resumed its work on Monday, with the menu of unemployment insurance reform. But it is indeed the debates on the 2023 budget that have agitated the majority in recent hours. Last Friday, Aurore Bergé, president of the Macronist deputies, and the elected representative of Val-de-Marne Mathieu Lefèvre, tabled an amendment on behalf of their group aimed at reducing inheritance rights, an electoral promise from Emmanuel Macron. But this initiative, taken without consultation with their colleagues, made the walkers and members of the government jump.

An “off-topic” reform this fall

During the presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron promised to reduce inheritance tax at an estimated cost of 3 billion euros. The president wanted to raise the reduction on direct line inheritances, from 100,000 to 150,000 euros, “to take into account property prices” and support the “middle classes”. He also intended to make transmissions under the indirect regime more flexible, by exempting them from tax up to 100,000 euros, to better take into account blended families.

But the amendment tabled to the 2023 finance bill, which takes up these two ideas, set fire to the majority. According Le Figaro, WhatsApp Renaissance loops heated up all weekend, with many elected officials asking for their signature to be removed from the text. “Now is not the right time. Today, the priorities are to limit the effects of inflation for the French people and to protect their security by continuing our support for Ukraine. Not heritage issues, ”slices a Renaissance MP. “Especially since half of the French people inherit less than 70,000 euros in their life, and are therefore already exempt from inheritance tax, she continues. It would be irrelevant to put this reform on top of the pile this fall”.

Traveling to Martinique, the Budget Minister, Gabriel Attal, has also taken care to reframe Aurore Bergé and Mathieu Lefèvre. “I’m not here to tell the French salads. We have a constrained budgetary situation which forces us to make choices, ”he said on Sunday, according to a journalist present on the spot.

An amendment debated, but without a vote in the Assembly

While the executive must tie up its budget in a context of galloping inflation and limited growth, the reform of successions is therefore not considered topical. Especially since the macronie does not seem totally aligned on this delicate subject. Already in 2018, Christophe Castaner had been sharply reframed by Emmanuel Macron when he had mentioned his desire to open a “reflection without taboos” on the taxation of inheritances, in order to fight against inequalities. Four years later, facing the bronca and to appease the spirits, Aurore Bergé and Mathieu Lefèvre finally decided to file the amendment in their own names. The macronists also assure that it will only be a “call amendment” to provoke debate, without it being put to the vote in the Hemicycle.

“This is to remind us that we will keep our commitment. We do not have the means to implement it in this year 2023 but the deputies, like the government, are aligned to guarantee its entry into force by the end of the mandate”, advances Sylvain Maillard, vice- President of the Renaissance group. “There are no taboos and promises will be kept. But we already have hot topics on the table, we have to choose the right time to have a time for debate which will really be devoted to inheritance rights ”, abounds Prisca Thévenot, deputy for Hauts-de-Seine and spokesperson for Renaissance. .

On Twitter, the LR vice-president of the Senate, Roger Karoutchi, denounced “a caricature of parliamentary work. In other words, we advertise, but in reality, we don’t want to do anything”. The right, very favorable to a reform, could choose to infiltrate the breach. And table a similar amendment which would be put to the vote.


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