{"id":19551,"date":"2024-11-29T04:56:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T04:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19551"},"modified":"2024-11-29T04:56:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T04:56:34","slug":"french-prime-minister-scraps-electricity-tax-amid-far-rights-no-confidence-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19551","title":{"rendered":"French Prime Minister scraps electricity tax amid far right\u2019s no-confidence threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday dropped plans to raise electricity taxes in his 2025 budget, bowing<\/span>\u00a0to far-right threats to bring the government down unless he eased the burden on the working classes.<\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0far-right National Rally (RN)\u00a0<\/span>warned this concession was insufficient to avoid a no-confidence vote as early as next week<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Barnier\u2019s government had hoped to bring in some 3 billion euros ($3.17 billion) by raising a tax on electricity that had been cut to near zero during the energy crisis of the past two years \u2014 part of a broader effort to plug a gaping hole the public finances with 60 billion euros worth of tax hikes and spending cuts.<\/p>\n

However, widespread opposition to the budget plans on the left and far right have left President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s prime minister and government facing a\u00a0lose-lose situation<\/a>: moderate the budget\u2019s fiscal ambitions and threaten France\u2019s financial stability or face a perilous no-confidence vote.<\/p>\n

Investors are already skittish. A sell-off drove French government bonds on Wednesday to their highest risk premium over German bonds since the euro zone\u2019s 2012 debt crisis, before they regained some poise on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Rally has just won a victory by obtaining from Michel Barnier the cancellation of the 3 billion euro tax on electricity,\u201d RN party President Jordan Bardella wrote on X. \u201cBut we cannot stop there. Other red lines remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The party has in recent days reiterated Marine Le Pen\u2019s budget \u201cred lines\u201d, including over government plans to delay indexing pensions to inflation and the re-profiling of companies\u2019 social security contributions.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Finance Minister Antoine Armand said the government was ready to make \u201cmeasured concessions\u201d, warning that failure to pass the budget could lead to a storm in financial markets.<\/p>\n

Barnier\u2019s minority government\u00a0may not survive beyond\u00a0<\/span>next week, when it will likely be forced\u00a0on Monday<\/span>\u00a0to use a special constitutional power \u2014 known as article 49.3 \u2014 to push the social security budget through without a parliamentary vote due to lack of support.<\/p>\n

That would invariably trigger a no-confidence motion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Thursday today. (The prime minister) has until Monday,\u201d far-right chief Marine Le Pen told Le Monde.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if the government lives through next week, the\u00a0<\/span>same may happen when the deadline approaches for the broader budget in mid-December. The RN<\/span> has repeatedly said the budget is not acceptable as it stands.<\/p>\n

Public divided<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public opinion on Barnier\u2019s future is split.<\/p>\n

Some 53% of French people<\/a>\u00a0want Barnier\u2019s government to fall, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll for Sud Radio published on Thursday. However, an Elabe poll for BFM TV on Wednesday found that more than half of respondents believed a no-confidence vote that unseats the government should be avoided.<\/p>\n

Much remains in flux, with Barnier\u2019s team meeting with the RN, which props up his administration, and other parties for talks to avoid the second French major political crisis in six months.<\/p>\n

Le Pen and the RN have defended their right to vote to bring down the government, while the leftist block has also signalled its plan to topple Barnier\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

In a radio interview on Thursday, former President Francois Hollande, now a lawmaker from the Socialist Party, said he would vote to topple the government if Barnier uses article 49.3.<\/p>\n

(Writing by Gabriel Stargardter and Richard Lough; Editing by Christina Fincher, Hugh Lawson and Bill Berkrot).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/em> politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday dropped plans to raise electricity taxes in his 2025 budget, bowing\u00a0to far-right threats to bring the government down unless he eased the burden on the working classes. However, the\u00a0far-right National Rally (RN)\u00a0warned this concession was insufficient to avoid a no-confidence vote as early as next week. Barnier\u2019s government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}