Star Metro - Macron rams budget through divided French parliament

Leery of sparking further social unrest after weeks of disruption from strikes at oil refineries and fuel depots that have caused shortages at petrol pumps, the government waited until after broader strike action and demonstrations on Tuesday before unveiling the controversial measure.

The walkouts have been just one of the challenges facing Macron in his second term in office, after he failed to secure an overall majority in June legislative polls.

The government decided to force through the budget after battling in vain to get it approved by the fractured lower house of parliament.

"We need to give our country a budget," Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told lawmakers as she announced the use of clause 49.3 of the French constitution, under which a law can be passed automatically unless the opposition passes its own vote of no confidence in the government.

"The French are expecting... action and results from us," she said, to boos from the opposition and applause from supporters.

After promising an open debate, Macron's camp suffered a series of defeats over the first of thousands of proposed amendments to its fiscal plans for next year.

Meanwhile opposition lawmakers have accused the government of wasting their time with debate, given the widely expected forced passage of the law.

"Everything we vote on overnight at the assembly will be taken apart," far-right National Rally spokesman Sebastien Chenu said Tuesday.

But the forces most hostile to the government, on the hard left and far right, have each already ruled out voting for a no-confidence motion brought by the other.

Macron has already vowed to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections if a no-confidence vote is passed.

- 'Live with it' -

Since his re-election earlier this year and the legislative election setback that cost him his majority, Macron and his ministers have promised to be more open to dialogue with the opposition and civil society than during his first five years in office.

But they have rejected allegations from lawmakers that the use of article 49.3 means abandoning those efforts.

The article means "the government has the ability to force the adoption of a bill when in fact the opposition can live with it", Francois Bayrou, leader of the Democratic Movement party allied to Macron, told broadcaster France Inter.

With the passage of the budget all but assured, lawmakers had been left wondering which of their hard-fought amendments might be left in, with the choice entirely up to ministers.

Borne said that "around 100" modifications, including some from the opposition, would be left in.

The budget "has been fed, complemented, amended, even corrected following the debates of recent days," she told MPs.

One senior lawmaker told AFP that the changes, including tax breaks for childcare and for very small businesses, would cost up to 800 million euros ($782 million).

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has nevertheless warned Borne that he would not back changes that would blow holes in the budget, another person present at their Monday meeting said.

Looking ahead, the government has already announced that it could also use article 49.3 to pass the Social Security budget, upon which debate is set to begin on Thursday.

P.Beaulieu--SMC