The Assemblée Nationale rejected Monday, February 10, a new vote of no confidence tabled by the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) against François Bayrou's use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution to push a part of the social security budget through Parliament without a vote. Unlike the three previous no-confidence votes, the motion presented by the LFI on Monday was not co-signed by the Greens or Communists. It received just 115 votes out of the 289 needed, in the absence of support from the far right and the Socialists.
In front of a sparsely-populated chamber, Bayrou defended the need for a budget to be "adopted as quickly as possible." Speaking for LFI, Nadège Abomangoli called to oust a government that "talks and acts like the [far-right] Rassemblement National."
Immediately afterward, the prime minister triggered Article 49.3 for the third time, on the final part of the 2025 social security spending bill. LFI announced it was filing a new vote of no confidence. The motion is due to be examined later this week.
Once passed by the Assemblée Nationale, the social security budget will go to the Sénat, where the government is hoping for unchanged approval by the upper house, expected on February 17 or 18. The bill, which Bayrou's predecessor Michel Barnier his job, has since been the object of negotiations, notably between the government and the Socialists.
It originally planned to contain the rise in healthcare expenditure to +2.6 %, reaching €264.2 billion. The government has promised to revise this target to +3.3 %. The initial project forecasted a social security deficit of €16 billion, but the delay since the vote of no confidence, certain concessions that have not been compensated for and the deterioration in macroeconomic forecasts have led the government to predict a deficit of around €23 billion in 2025, a "considerable and growing" deficit, warned Bayrou, evoking an "immense task for the future."
Bayrou escaped two no-confidence votes last Wednesday. Their failure enabled the adoption of the state budget for 2025, thanks to the decision of the Socialists and the far right not to censure the government. An earlier motion of no confidence filed by LFI had also failed on January 16.
The Socialists have announced they will also put forward a "spontaneous" motion of no confidence – unrelated to the adoption of any legislation – against Bayrou's government, to protest against the prime minister's comments on a "feeling of migratory submersion." This procedure can be done under Article 49.2 of the French Constitution. The motion will be examined on February 19, according to Socialist leader Olivier Faure, speaking on French station BFM-TV.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.