The end of a chaotic journey. The Social Security budget was definitively adopted on Monday via the rejection of a final motion of censure in the National Assembly, in response to Élisabeth Borne’s twentieth use of 49.3, which allows texts to be adopted without a vote.
“You know that these 49.3 are necessary, but you are pretending, you are acting indignant,” said the Prime Minister in an almost deserted hemicycle, blaming the truncated debates on oppositions refusing dialogue, according to her. This Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) “is a text of social progress”, argued Élisabeth Borne, praising “a budget of 640 billion euros for our Social Security”.
The opposition denounces “a forceful passage”
Without convincing the left, which had put its divisions on hold to denounce in a united motion a “forceful passage” on a text which “unravels Social Security and brutalizes our public hospital and its caregivers”. “You have shamelessly bullied Parliament,” said socialist Arthur Delaporte. “You waved the red rag of the public deficit to better justify budget cuts, savings and investment failures” in health, added Insoumise Ségolène Amiot.
The Senate, dominated by the right, had for its part adopted a largely revised version of this budget, contesting a financial trajectory considered unrealistic. But the government rejected most of its additions. The Social Security deficit, now estimated at 8.7 billion euros for 2023, would reach 10.5 billion across all branches in 2024, according to the latest estimates from the government, which contests any “austerity”.
Two files hovered over the parliamentary debates, without appearing in the text. After threatening a drain on the reserves of the Agirc-Arrco supplementary pension plan, managed by the social partners, the government ended up backing down. Without giving up asking for this scheme to participate in the revaluation of small pensions, the executive decided to rely on negotiations between employers and unions.