Budget programming: 49.3 expected without Elizabeth Bourne in the Assembly.

17th use 49.3? On Monday, the government is due to initiate a new bill 49.3 in the National Assembly for the final adoption of the budget programming law for 2023-2027. Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne, who is on an official visit to Ireland, will not attend.

A new use of 49.3 from the Bourne government is expected from 16:00. Minister for Relations with Parliament Frank Riester is expected to initiate it so that the text is adopted without a vote, in the absence of an absolute majority in the Palais-Bourbon. “As the Prime Minister is on an official trip to Ireland, she will be replaced in the National Assembly if her government is held accountable,” said those close to Elizabeth Bourne.

The absence of a prime minister who could hold the government accountable to the Assembly “would not be the first,” a parliamentary source recalls. “Under Michel Rocard (Prime Minister from 1988 to 1991), several 49.3s were initiated by the Minister for Relations with Parliament or Number 2 of the Lionel Jospin government.”

Reduce deficit to 2.7% of GDP in 2027

Clause 49.3 may be followed by a new vote of no confidence from the opposition, the likely rejection of which in a few days will mean the final adoption of this text of the public finance program.

The government promises in this law to reduce the public deficit from 4.9% of gross domestic product in 2023 to 2.7% in 2027, below the European target of 3%. The center-right Senate, for its part, demanded a return below 3% two years earlier in 2025 and a reduction in the government deficit to 1.7% in 2027, but was unsuccessful.

With the exception of state and social security budgets, for which the use of Article 49.3 is unrestricted, the government has the right to use this constitutional weapon in only one text per parliamentary session. But the executive branch, supported by legal opinions, assures that it is not using this cartridge for this public finance programming law, since it was already the subject of the first 49.3 at the end of September, in an extraordinary session.

The opposition may seek to challenge this legal argument if the government uses 49.3 again during this regular session, for example when considering the immigration bill.