When school starts again, we’ll have to get out the calculators and revise subtractions, since “By 2025, we will need at least 20 billion euros in savings” : this is the first lesson given, in the columns ofToday in France Sundayby the resigning Minister of Public Accounts. “No government will be able to, according to Thomas Cazenave, to exempt itself from continuing efforts to reduce the deficit.” So we’ll have to calculate quickly, since the draft budget for next year must be presented to Parliament in exactly one month, and no new government has been installed yet. The one who is due to leave soon has therefore proposed, in the meantime, a budget identical to this year, which could be modified by the future government team.
But “Nothing says that France will produce a proper finance law”warns The Expresswhich recalls that the text will have to be adopted by parliamentarians. This is “a 110 meter hurdles that is coming up, according to the magazine, with a headwind, without warming up, and in a generally hostile stadium, regardless of the bib number of the person wearing the text”. In its pages, The Express outlines the different institutional scenarios that could be envisaged, depending on whether or not a vote is in favour. “Rejecting the budget would have the same effect as passing a motion of censure.”conclude two professors of public law quoted by the weekly.
“Budget: France is unmanageable” in the front page of The Express, “The Cluster Bomb” title The New Obs, “France on a volcano” on the cover of Point
To avoid, as feared The ExpressA “fiscal chaos coupled with an institutional crisis”, The New Obs therefore consider the measures on which “talks” could be committed. Savings would be possible in particular with the “undue rents” : the tax on super profits from electricity, which was “poorly designed”according to the magazine, or the capital income tax which “could increase by a few points” beyond 30%. Measures that could pay off, according to The New Obs, “between 5 and 10 billion euros”.
The problem, for The Pointis that “tax pressure” in France is already “the highest in Europe”The weekly newspaper nevertheless recognizes that savings must be made, “because without this, the State will no longer have much room for maneuver”between the “debt interest charge” on the rise and the risk, pointed out by an economist quoted by The Pointa new downgrade of France’s rating by the agencies. “Beware of the crash”therefore warns The Pointwhich also mentions the concerns of the bosses. “Since the dissolution, 60% of mid-sized companies have chosen, the magazine specifies, to suspend all or part of their investments while waiting to see more clearly. The other warning, recalled in all the articles, also concerns the European Commission, which is waiting for the budgetary plan of the Member States for the coming years by September 20. France is already wearing a dunce’s cap, since it is targeted by an excessive deficit procedure launched by the European Council at the end of July.
Bernard Cazeneuve, still Prime Minister?
In short, the class is disordered, and yet… The director of the establishment, Emmanuel Macron, has not yet appointed new teachers. All the media are getting impatient: the president was supposed to announce the name of the new head of government at the beginning of the week… Then perhaps by Friday… It will now be after the start of the school year, “by Wednesday at the latest”according to The Sunday Journalwho notices the allure ” relaxed “ Emmanuel Macron since his trip to Serbia; a sign, according to some, that he has already made his choice. But which one? “We have the feeling that no one wants to get involved”notes former minister Clément Beaune, in The Point.
One name, however, keeps coming up: Bernard Cazeneuve, the former Prime Minister of François Hollande. The hypothesis ” split “ The Socialist Party, title The Worldand it is not validated by the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, who continues to support the candidacy of Lucie Castets, chosen by the New Popular Front. “So that his arrival at Matignon is perceived as good news, writing The World, Bernard Cazeneuve will still have to be able to propose the repeal of the pension reform, the increase of the minimum wage or the restoration of the solidarity tax on wealth.” As many “red lines” listed by opponents. “He is a man of quality”Nicolas Sarkozy nevertheless recognizes, in The Figaro. But the former president says he wants a “Right-wing Prime Minister”.
Other good students are cited, such as Karim Bouamrane, “the “Barack Obama” of Saint-Ouen”title The New Obswho believes that “The ambitious socialist mayor, the new darling of the anti-Mélenchon left, has seen his popularity soar” since the Olympic Games. Some articles also mention Didier Migaud, the president of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life: a hypothesis dismissed by one of the sources of the JDD. “Does the President want a Prime Minister?”Laureline Dupont finally asks herself, in The Express.
Taking inspiration from the Olympic and Paralympic Games
We come to wonder whether we should not adopt, with the political class, Caroline Goldman’s method: The New Obs dedicates its cover to this child and adolescent psychologist who advocates, according to the magazine, “a return to authority”and which opposes “positive education”. An increasingly publicized but also controversial psychologist, explains The New Obsparticularly when it relativizes the existence of neurodevelopmental disorders in children (for example, autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit disorder).
The new school year is well and truly here, and only a few articles and editorials still remind us that France is carried, this summer, by the magic of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “The French want politicians to be inspired by respect for the rules, respect for opponents and adopt team spirit”writes Ruth Elkrief in Today in France Sunday. “By renouncing partisanship, political leaders will allow the French to believe that the magic of the Olympic Games was not just a midsummer night’s dream.”adds Bruno Jeudy in The Sunday TribuneIt remains to be seen whether it is too late to avoid the zero point.