It was predicted, expected, even announced. And yet late in the afternoon on Wednesday, a shock passed through the French National Assembly when Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced that the government is putting parliament aside in order to be able to implement the budget for 2023.
Invoking Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, the government can pass laws without the approval of parliament. The Borne government, incumbent since July, opted for the emergency measure on Wednesday because it has become clear in recent weeks that there would be no majority for the budget, which has been criticized by opposition from left to right. Finding left-wing parties the plans too frugal, right-wing too expensive. The radical right-wing Rassemblement National thinks France is conforming too much to EU policy.
Strict conditions
It is the first time the Borne administration has deployed ‘49.3’ and only the second time that a prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron chooses this. During his first five-year term, Macron didn’t need it (with one exception) because he enjoyed an absolute majority in parliament and could therefore carry out plans much more easily. That has not been the case since last June’s parliamentary elections, when the parties supporting Macron did not win enough seats to form a majority. Since then, Macron and Borne have therefore needed support from other parties to get their plans implemented – or they choose the emergency door of 49.3.
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It is not the case that the government can continuously cite the article of the Constitution in the coming years. The hold has been subject to strict conditions since a constitutional amendment in 2008. Invoking 49.3 is currently only allowed three times a year and only for laws on defined themes. However, if it proves impossible to pass laws, Macron could at some point dissolve parliament and call new elections in the hope of a larger mandate.
Motions of no confidence
Using 49.3 is sensitive, as it turned out on Wednesday evening. Parliamentarian Mathilde Panot of the left-wing alliance NUPES said according to Le Monde in the Assembly that the left parties “refuse to get used to 49.3”. Another left-wing parliamentarian spoke of “a disgrace to our democracy”. And the vice president of the Rassemblement National Jean-Philippe Tanguy said the government is “lost” and “acts as if they still have a parliamentary majority”.
Both sides also immediately announced a vote of no confidence – the only thing parliamentarians can do in return after calling for 49.3. If one of these motions is passed by parliament, not only will the budget bill go into the trash, but the Borne government will also have to resign. The chance that enough opposition politicians will support the same motion, however, seems nil.
Prime Minister Borne himself explained the decision to move to 49.3 Wednesday afternoon as necessary to get budgetary agreements for 2023 implemented in time. She stated that criticism and suggestions from opposition politicians had been heard and that the current proposal has been “enriched, supplemented, adapted, even corrected” since the debates on the plan began earlier this month. Whether that is enough to satisfy the parliamentarians is doubtful.
It will also be exciting how the French will react outside the Assembly. In recent weeks, simmering feelings of dissatisfaction with Macron and Borne’s policies have been growing for some time, leading to protests and days of strikes. And this also specifically opposed 49.3.
Also read this analysis: Emmanuel Macron loses absolute majority in French parliament