Prime Minister Michel Barnier presented Thursday, October 10, several days late, the first version of his finance bill for 2025. A roadmap which should allow the French State, whose finances are in deficit to the tune of by 6.1% (twice more than expected by European standards), to achieve 60.6 billion euros in savings next year.
If the French executive denies any austerity measures, the foreign press does not hesitate to highlight the scale of the savings planned by the French government. This is the case of New York Times, which describes “an austerity program”, the current contours of which involve “sharp spending cuts and heavy one-off taxes”, particularly for the richest and businesses. So many measures intended to stem “one of the worst European deficits”, according to the New York daily.
“An austerity program”
It is also a “requirement” budget for the Swiss daily Timewhich notes in the measures proposed by the French government severe cuts to public spending (40 billion euros in savings). Michel Barnier’s roadmap is distinguished by “the enormous savings” that he is asking from local authorities (5 billion euros) as well as from numerous ministries and state operators (21.5 billion euros ), notes the Swiss newspaper.
“France is scrutinizing its abysmal budgetary abyss”, even the headline The Economist. For the British magazine, the “painful” budgetary economics proposed by Michel Barnier should be all the more difficult to implement as the “minority government” he leads “is hanging by a thread”. The debates around this budget could therefore be “the most complicated in recent years”, according to the Spanish daily El País, which drives the point home and describes an “aggressive and austere” bill.
A divided Assembly
Far from achieving unanimity within a fragmented National Assembly, this first version of the budget presented by Michel Barnier arouses criticism from all political camps. Faced with this stormy weather, Time foresees numerous “ideological battles over the extent of the cuts and taxes envisaged” in the coming weeks.
If the criticism comes mainly from the far right of Marine Le Pen and the left of the New Popular Front, the daily El País also anticipates future difficulties from the Macronist camp itself, likely to isolate the President of the Republic: “The content of the new budget will undoubtedly attract the ire of some of his partners, including among the Macronists” , he prophesies.
This lack of support in the National Assembly could convince Prime Minister Michel Barnier to have his budget adopted by force. To do this, he could use “the famous article 49.3 of the Constitution, to which Emmanuel Macron has become accustomed in recent times”, further theorizes El País. Same observation on the side of Timewho predicts that this new budget could very quickly “ignite” the National Assembly in the coming weeks and therefore end with adoption… at 49.3. “Problem, concludes the Swiss newspaper. This forceful passage will imply a vote of confidence which could mark the end of the Barnier government…”