France's far-right National Rally (RN) has announced it will present 'a counter-budget' next week at the start of a National Assemby committee's examination of Prime Minister Michel Barnier's 2025 finance bill, deeming the government's current copy 'absolutely unacceptable'.
Speaking on FranceInfo this Saturday, National Rally MP Thomas Ménagé said: “As things stand, this budget is absolutely unacceptable ... Very clear red lines have been crossed," he added, referring to a tax on electricity, the reduction in reimbursement for medical consultations, the increase in taxes on air transport, and also the increase in taxation on gas that the Greens wish to see included in Barnier's finance bill.
As a result, the RN – whose own economic programme has been criticised by several experts as costly and ineffective – will present a “counter-budget” at a press conference on Wednesday.
“We're going to use all our parliamentary time to bring this government back to its senses,” said Laurent Jacobelli, vice-president of the RN group in the National Assembly, on France Inter.
Asked about a possible motion of censure, he remained evasive.
“I'm not here to break up the Fifth Republic, we're here to save the French,” he said, even though his party has been accused by the left of supporting Barnier's coalition by not voting, on 8 October, for a motion tabled by the left-wing New Popular Front alliance to bring down the government.
On Friday, Marine Le Pen denounced on X “the obvious lie” of the executive on the budget.
Le Pen – who leads the National Rally's MPs in the National Assembly – has endorsed a study used by France's High Council for Public Finances, which shows that 70 percent of Barnier's budget will concentrate on raising taxes and 30 percent on cutting spending.
This is the opposite of what the government is promoting, which has promised to cut spending by two-thirds.
