France’s upper house of parliament on Thursday backed a controversial 2025 budget bill that cost the prime minister’s chair to the previous prime minister Michel Barnier.
217 senators voted in favour of the bill, while 105 voted against it. Although the result of the vote was expected, as the centre-right majority of the upper house of parliament supports the government, the approval of the bill was the first step in support of the new prime minister, François Bayrou. Socialists, environmentalists and communists opposed the text.
On January 30, the bill will be examined by a so-called mixed parity commission made up of 7 senators and 7 members of the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. It must agree on the text, which will be submitted to the National Assembly deputies for a vote on February 3.
If the commission fails to reach a consensus, the text will be considered again by both houses of parliament. To pass the bill as quickly as possible, Bayrou has the power to resort to Article 49.3 of the French constitution to pass the law without a vote of deputies, which would threaten him with a new vote of no confidence.
The 2025 budget bill, which France still does not have due to the resignation of the previous government, was drafted by former prime minister Michel Barnier in October. It envisages austerity measures for the sake of reducing the budget deficit, which will be around 6 per cent in 2024, as well as cutting public debt, which has exceeded 3.3 trillion euros and reached 113.7 per cent of GDP.
The text was rejected in its first reading in the National Assembly and its consideration was suspended after a vote of no confidence in the prime minister from the opposition and the subsequent resignation of the cabinet.
