PARIS--The government of French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said it would push the 2023 budget bill through the lower house of parliament using rarely used constitutional powers to override the need for a parliamentary vote.
Macron's government resorted to using the measure after it lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly in June's legislative elections. The move highlights the president's weakness in parliament and flies in the face of post-election promises to reach out to other parties and negotiate more on important legislation.
"We can't take the risk of leaving France without a budget at a moment when there are numerous risks," Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told lawmakers.
After the opposition added hundreds of costly amendments to the budget bill, Borne said the government was triggering article 49.3 of the constitution, which allows it to pass a draft law by decree, effectively bypassing lawmakers. The left-wing Nupes coalition and the far right Rassemblement National party immediately responded by calling for a no-confidence motion, which is largely symbolic as it has little chance of passing.
"France cannot be governed by whipping out the 49.3. That's why the Nupes has just decided to lodge a no-confidence motion," senior Nupes lawmaker Mathilde Panot told reporters moments after Borne's announcement.
While the no-confidence motion is unlikely to win broad enough support to bring down the government, using article 49.3 will only fuel tensions with the opposition as the government seeks to prepare the ground for an unpopular retirement reform. It also comes amid rising social tensions over the inflation crisis with several thousand people taking to streets on Tuesday in a march for higher wages and the government forced this month to requisition striking workers to operate refineries.
Ministers have said that there was little choice but to use the article to pass the budget after opposition parties tacked hundreds of amendments onto the bill that could potentially add more than 8 billion euros ($7.9 billion) to the deficit if adopted. In a blow to the government, even some of Macron's centrist allies joined lawmakers from the left and far-right in backing an amendment for a dividend tax on large corporations' windfall profits.
The last time the 49.3 clause was used was in 2016 when then-president Francois Hollande's Socialist government rammed through contested labour law reforms that had been championed by Macron, who was economy minister at the time.
