New quack for the macronists in the Assembly: the 2021 accounts rejected

A new quack for the macronists without an absolute majority: the National Assembly rejected the 2021 budget settlement bill on Wednesday August 3, a usually fairly banal step in the validation of public accounts. The deputies rejected the text by 173 votes against 167, via a coalition of oppositions.

This bill is a texttechnical statement which looks back over the past financial year and is only intended to take note of its execution“. His rejectiondoes not have any consequences on the budgetary programming for the year 2023, nor on the State’s ability to honor its budgetary commitments for the year 2022“, relativized the Ministry of Public Accounts. The government was counting on a last green light from the National Assembly during this final reading, after the rejection of the text in the Senate, where the right pinned the situation “very degraded public accounts“, with a public deficit of 6.4% of GDP in 2021. After the vote against by the National Assembly, with six votes, the government could reintroduce a settlement bill in the Council of Ministers.

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On Wednesday, the right and left oppositions jointly criticized a text presented with “delayby opposing it for different reasons. The LR right repeated through the voice of deputy Patrick Hetzel that “the alert level on public finances has long been exceeded“.

“Economic wanderings»

On the far right, RN Bryan Masson accused the Macronist majority “of economic wanderings” Between “taxes on the middle and working classes” and “soaring inflation“. On the left, the socialist Philippe Brun spoke of the “Coué methodof the government whichfell asleep“, deeming insufficient the “42 billion euros disbursedin 2021 for the government’s €100 billion recovery plan. The rebellious David Guiraud has “recognized that the Covid episode forces a certain indulgence“. But “the richest contribute less and less to the state budget“, he denounced, while the ecologist Christine Arrighi pointed “inactionclimate of the executive.

In the hemicycle, the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure defended a year 2021 of “reprise” thanks to a “6.8% growth (of GDP)“, with a “exceptional stimulus effort” and of “protection“. The government praised the favorable employment situation and a “historically low youth unemployment rate“. The general budget rapporteur Jean-René Cazeneuve (Renaissance) described another year 2021 “extraordinary» for public accounts due to the Covid, with the financing of partial activity.