The government authorized to operate Article 49.3

The Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday authorized the government to activate Article 49.3 of the Constitution for the adoption of the budget “if the situation should require that we have recourse to it”, indicated the government spokesman. “The Council of Ministers deliberated this morning on this possibility if the situation, I insist on this, should require that we have recourse to it”, declared Olivier Véran.

Deprived of an absolute majority, the government had a foretaste of the heated debate on the budget on Tuesday evening which awaits it from this Wednesday, the opposition having unraveled the 2023-2027 budget programming bill with the rejection of several key articles. As a reminder, article 49.3 of the Constitution therefore allows the government, after deliberation by the Council of Ministers, to have a text adopted without a vote in the Assembly, except for a motion of censure. This procedure is possible for budgetary texts and for one other text per parliamentary session.

“Fear that oppositions are tempted to lead France to blockage”

“That does not mean that we want to use it, and that does not mean that we will use it, but it does mean that we anticipate the situation which would push us to use it to avoid depriving France of ‘a budget,’ said Olivier Véran, during the report of the Council of Ministers.

“It is very to be feared that oppositions will be tempted to lead France to blockage. In any case, this is what emerges from certain interventions by opposition group presidents who, moreover, announced early on that they would vote against France’s budget in any case, the spokesperson pointed out. executive speech. In this context, we obviously want to avoid any risk of deadlock for our country because the consequences, if we do not adopt a budget, would be dramatic for all French people. »

“Yes to dialogue, and there will be: the examination of the text has begun in Parliament, it will continue and we will seek, article after article, amendment after amendment, solutions to obtain a consensus”, he said. he still underlined.

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