It is Éric Woerth, who held the position for five years as a member of the opposition (LR), before joining Emmanuel Macron, who says it: the presidency of the Finance, General Economy and of the National Assembly’s budgetary control “is a formidable political forum”. It must be said that it is, with the Law Commission, the most powerful of the Palais-Bourbon, the one that examines the budgetary texts. According to the rules of the Chamber, only “a deputy belonging to a group that has declared itself to be in opposition” can be elected as its head. One hell of a stone in the garden together! and its very relative majority at a time when interest rates on French debt are rising at breakneck speed.
Tradition dictates that the parliamentary majority does not interfere in the vote for the election of the president. First opposition group, the RN could therefore seize this position, unless the groups that make up the Nupes agree on a name. The issue is far from being anecdotal. The chairman of the powerful committee decides on the fate of the amendments tabled under the examination of financial admissibility. “ Misuse of this power of admissibility, for example if it is used for political purposes, can contribute to sowing discord”, underlines Éric Woerth.
The chairman of the commission has a power of control “on the spot and on documents”: he can land in an administration, a public company to request all the useful documents on a file related to the budget. That is to say almost on everything, in reality. The administration cannot oppose tax secrecy to refuse him documents. Considerable powers that could be exploited for political purposes. Normally, the persons concerned by the documents collected cannot be publicly reported: no element allowing their identification can be published. But everything can so easily end up in the press through a timely leak… Trial of intent? Only practice will tell.
