PS views Sébastien Lecornu’s commitment as a victory. Could this be a trap? Former Republican President François Hollande, who is now vice president, said on Wednesday that we should not “deprive ourselves forever” of article 49.3 of the Constitution, which the Prime Minister vowed not to use to pass the budget.
“We must not eliminate constitutional provisions,” said François Hollande on BFMTV, when asked about the possibility that the government would reverse its decision and use 49.3 amid budget constraints. “We’ll see (…), it’s too early to say,” said the former President of the Republic, while assessing that it would be “better” if Parliament agreed and voted.
“If we say we will eliminate that right forever, yes, that is a mistake. If we also say that we will not continue to look for compromises, that is a mistake,” said François Hollande, who also used 49.3 during his presidential mandate.
The government, which does not have a majority in the National Assembly, has scrapped 49.3 which allowed it from 2022 to approve all budgets, without a vote.
The government rejects hypothesis 49.3
Examination of the State budget and Social Security projects continues this week in the Senate, but prospects for a compromise are weak while the former’s revenue component was almost unanimously rejected by the National Assembly on Friday evening and the upper house is in the process of unveiling the Social Security component. But François Hollande said he still “believes” in the possibility that Parliament will vote on the budget.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon wanted to rule out hypothesis 49.3. Addressing the press at the end of the Council of Ministers, he called for “parliamentarian responsibility” by insisting that “special laws, regulations or going back through the 49.3 window are clearly not the solution”. “There is no alternative other than parliamentary compromise. Specific laws and regulations are not the answer at this time,” he stressed.
When asked about the possibility that the Socialists would order the government to use 49.3, the spokesman replied that they were “not asking” and that the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, was “very clearly committed not to use 49.3, not only to please the Socialists” but also to let Parliament draw up the budget.
A rebellious Eric Coquerel accuses François Hollande of being a “PS pilot looking for a way out” compromise with macronism. “I was told that Sébastien Lecornu can use 49.3 provided PS officially requests it and clearly guarantees against future censorship,” he wrote in X.
