After the country's Constitution Court ruled in August in favour of the new Socialist government's plan to apply a cap on budget deficits through an overriding "organic" law and not a constitutional amendment, the Assembly's vote marks the penultimate step toward formal ratification of the Compact. The upper house, the Senate, is scheduled to open the debate on the bills on Wednesday.
Despite repeated assurances from the prime minister and the finance minister that deficit limits would still allow the government and parliament to set down national budget priorities within the framework of the Compact, and much cajoling and political pressure by the parliamentary whip on recalcitrant lawmakers unwilling to seeing budget austerity written in stone, a handful of left-wing Socialists remained opposed.
During his election campaign, President François Hollande himself had pledged to renegotiate the Compact initially proposed and signed by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy. After convincing his eurozone partners of the need for flanking measures to stimulate economic growth and obtaining a modest package of €120 billion, Hollande signed on to the Compact.
The Socialists' junior coalition partner, the Ecologists, were also profoundly split over the Compact and voted largely against it. The Leftist Front was adamantly opposed and demanded a public referendum on the issue. It was thanks to the broad support of Sarkozy's UMP party and several small centrist parties that the package was passed with a solid majority.
Full article
© Deutsche Börse
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article