Draft constitutional amendment: banning ordinary structural deficits
The published Plan is developed here into a full constitutional working draft, without claiming to replace formal governmental and parliamentary drafting.
Starting point: the published Plan
The public Plan already proposes a constitutional ban on ordinary imbalanced budgets. develops that source architecture into a working constitutional package tied to France’s existing financial and institutional provisions.
Working constitutional rule
Working Article 34-2
General government would be required to maintain structural balance. Finance Acts and Social Security Financing Acts could not authorize an ordinary structural deficit. An Organic Act would define calculation methods, data, uncertainty bands, correction mechanisms and narrow exceptional clauses.
Certification before filing
A Finance Bill would carry a public compliance certificate from the independent fiscal council before filing. A negative certificate would suspend filing, with rapid constitutional adjudication available to resolve legal or methodological disputes.
Mandatory constitutional review
Finance Acts and Social Security Financing Acts would automatically be reviewed before promulgation, rather than only when one of the currently authorized actors refers them.
Presidential obstruction
The draft separates bad policy from deliberate constitutional obstruction. A President would not be removable for an honest forecast error, but deliberate and repeated refusal to comply with a final constitutional budget ruling could be expressly addressed under the High Court mechanism.
How the Constitution would be amended
Article 89 currently requires identical votes by both chambers and then either a referendum or, for a government constitutional bill, approval by Congress with a three-fifths majority of votes cast.
Working documents and data
Legal and institutional sources
French Constitution, Article 34
French fiscal council — official missions
Organic Budget Act, Article 61