00:00Well, this Friday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Le Corneau survived two no-confidence motions,
00:17one put forward by the far left, the other by the far right.
00:20Last year, Le Corneau made headlines after pledging not to force a budget bill through Parliament without a vote.
00:26This week, he made news again for doing the exact opposite, invoking the ever-controversial Article 49.3 of the French Constitution
00:34to bypass a parliamentary vote on part of his budget bill.
00:38And he only made that move after three months of deadlocked discussions in France's National Assembly.
00:43This is what he had to say earlier.
00:46When debating doesn't lead to any solution, one must take responsibility.
00:51Engaging our government down this road is anything but an easy way out or a shortcut.
00:56It's the tool we have when there is no other solution.
01:02For more, we can speak to Paul Smith from the University of Nottingham.
01:05I'm all out to you.
01:06Paul, when we saw what played out at the French National Assembly this Friday, did it go about as you expected?
01:12Yes, pretty much exactly as I expected.
01:16The two motions failed.
01:18The far right motion was pretty much them alone.
01:22And then on the other side, the left-wing motion was supported by the far right.
01:26One or two other people, but failed as well, came 20 votes short.
01:31So it's pretty much exactly what I expected.
01:33And then the announcement that he's going to put the next bit of the budget through using 49.3 again.
01:37So we'll have the same process.
01:39So this dance is what we expected young.
01:43Yeah, and when we heard Lecornu's comments before those votes were held, he said,
01:47look, if debate doesn't lead to any solution, someone must take responsibility.
01:51But at the same time, the opposition is saying 49.3 is unconstitutional.
01:57How do you see this?
01:59Well, it's not unconstitutional because it's there.
02:02It's in the Constitution, yeah.
02:03And it's always, yeah, absolutely.
02:04It is literally in the Constitution.
02:06But I think what they're playing, I mean, particularly the right, it's very interesting.
02:11There's a slightly different discourse on the far left.
02:15One of the key players, actually, is what's called the rapporteur,
02:18the deputy who's responsible for sort of guiding or replying to the budget.
02:23And he's actually from La France, as soon as he made the, you know,
02:26he said that this is a budget that promises to do one thing, but actually it doesn't.
02:29It's not going to help people on lower incomes.
02:31It just helps the rich, whereas Le Pen very much in her criticism, launching, presenting her motion of censure,
02:40said this is, you know, he's broken his promise.
02:43But we kind of knew this was coming before Christmas, once the social security budget had gone through.
02:50And, of course, that went through under the normal legislative process.
02:55Even by then, some socialists were saying, actually, maybe we'll have to use 49.3 to get the budget through.
03:02Not that we absolutely agree with the overall budget, but it was already beginning to be conceded.
03:09And, of course, what we've seen, the reason that these motions of censure have failed is that both the socialists to the left of the centre bloc
03:17and Les Républicains to the right, even if they don't like the whole of the budget, are not willing to bring the government down.
03:26And, of course, you need to have an absolute majority, which today stands at 288 votes, 288 votes.
03:32You'd have to have that to get the motion through.
03:34Yeah, and so we've got another busy week ahead of us, Paul.
03:38Next week, tell us what to expect.
03:41Well, next week, we'll have, you know, your motion of no confidence, your censure motion has to, there's a 48-hour cooling-off period.
03:50We don't really need that, to be honest, because I think the votes will fall pretty much in the same way.
03:54So what's going to happen next week is that the expenditure part, the budget is broken into two parts.
04:00So we've seen the income part has gone through.
04:03The next will be the expenditure, and that will be dealt with, those motions of no confidence or censure will be dealt with in the early part of next week.
04:11But then there are other legislation that Macron and Le Corneux want to deal with.
04:19The Assisted Dying Act, for example, is still there to be dealt with,
04:23and there are other pieces of legislation that the government wants to move on to.
04:27So it's still going to be a very lively legislative week next week.
04:32And where is public support for Article 49.3?
04:36Is this something that people support?
04:37Is this something that people see as a necessary evil?
04:40Or do people want it withdrawn?
04:43Yeah, I think that there was an interesting opinion poll over the weekend that said that 7 out of 10 French people don't like it being used.
04:52But I think that there are – I think there's something to be said for – there was quite an interesting article by Bastien-Francois, a French political scientist, saying that there's 49.3 and there's 49.3.
05:04I mean, there's kind of this idea of 49.3 could be used as a steamroller or it can be negotiated.
05:10And this is what we've seen.
05:11And I think that there's something to be said for Le Corneux's position that, you know, you say – you try to say to Parliament, this is your responsibility.
05:18And that word responsibility is important.
05:20And, of course, he used it.
05:21This is your responsibility.
05:22We're negotiating the budget.
05:24You know, let's sort this out, this budget out.
05:27And that was always his – what they call la méthode.
05:29You know, his method was to try to bring all the various groups on side and try to find a consensus somewhere in the centre of French politics.
05:38But in the end, that doesn't work.
05:40So it didn't work.
05:40And I think the ordinary French – you know, most French people, yes, when they're asked, 49.3, do you like it?
05:46No, we don't like it.
05:46But do you want a budget?
05:48Yes, we want a budget.
05:48So, you know, you have to kind of balance those things up.
05:52So I think that most French people don't like it but, as you say, a necessary evil at key times because there are people who, if there's no budget, they don't get paid.
06:01You know, agricultural subsidies, for example.
06:03So, you know, France needs a budget.
06:05Yeah, and they need a certain savoir-faire, I guess, with a 49.3.
06:09Paul, thank you very much.
06:10Paul Smith is speaking to us there.
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