Break day at the Assembly, but the pressure remains intact. The boss of the PS Olivier Faure even raised the specter of new censorship on Sunday, leading to a probable dissolution, if the government did not give in in the coming days on a tax on high wealth. “At the end of this week, we will know if we are going to dissolve or not,” Olivier Faure summarized Sunday morning on LCI. “If we go there […]we can consider that in the month of November, there will be legislative elections,” he insisted.
After having won the suspension of the pension reform, the PS intends to push its advantage by concentrating its demands on another object: the Zucman tax, which is at the heart of the discussions on the “revenue” part of the budget in the Assembly, scheduled until November 4.
The Zucman tax still under debate
The tax provides for a minimum tax of 2% on assets above 100 million euros, but “if by chance in the hemicycle, we are unable to move forward” on this version, “we will look for fallback amendments”, specified the first secretary of the PS. Alternative supported by his group: introduce a minimum tax of 3% on high assets, from 10 million euros, excluding innovative and family businesses.
In its initial form, this tax is a red line for the executive which “considers that we cannot do anything with the productive system, that we cannot do anything with employment, that we cannot do anything with innovation and with everything that creates wealth in favor of our fellow citizens”, according to government spokesperson Maud Bregeon, interviewed on France 3. But a categorical refusal from the deputies of the central bloc of find a trail landing on the subject, “of course, it’s a casus belli”, threatened Olivier Faure. And the socialist deputy Philippe Brun drove the point home on Radio J: “If there is no agreement with us this week, everything will collapse. The government will collapse, this House will collapse and the country will collapse.”
The week which opens in the Assembly, also marked by the start of the examination of the Social Security budget in committee, therefore promises to be still perilous for the Lecornu government, which for the moment owes its survival only to the decision of the PS not to censor it from the outset.
A tactical report
Saturday evening, at the close of debates which had become heated, the Minister of Public Accounts Amélie de Montchalin announced that when it resumed on Monday, certain articles would be examined as a priority, de facto postponing the examination of the Zucman tax until later in the week. A tactical report according to La France insoumise, which has been calling for several days a “fool’s game” and accuses the PS of collusion with the executive with the help of “secret negotiations”. “They are negotiating things which mean that the Socialist Party has not only changed its alliance, but has changed its line,” assured Mathilde Panot to the RTL/Public Senate/Le Figaro Grand Jury. According to the head of the Insoumis deputies, the PS “is abandoning everything” by proposing a “homeopathic Zucman tax” with “almost zero yield”.
Faced with these attacks, Faure claims “normal” contacts and a “fluid discussion” with Mr. Lecornu, around a shared desire “to achieve at some point in France having a budget before the end of the year”. In unison, Monchalin assured Sunday that there was “no global deal”, no “non-censorship pact” or “coalition agreement”. “There are subjects on which we are seeking compromises,” she said at the microphone of “Political Questions” (France Inter, franceinfo, Le Monde).
But the exercise is akin to tightrope walking for an executive caught in contradictory injunctions, between its base of support, its opposition, or even the Senate, whose President Gérard Larcher made known on Saturday his desire to revoke the suspension of the pension reform. “Compromise applies to everyone and it also applies to the government. So everyone must be a little humble,” urged Maud Bregeon.
