The sequence will have lasted endless months. Carrying a whole government in passing. Leaving companies and households in the total fog. Providing investors with a feeling of concern about the sustainability of French debt. Michel Barnier had not succeeded. François Bayrou did it, at the price of some concessions: France has a budget for 2025.
The hardest part has passed, some people say. In reality, the mission of the chief of the executive has only just begun. Because he is in front of an abandoned site. Since the dissolution, all the reform projects launched or announced have remained unanswered. Decided to reduce public spending, François Bayrou intends to tackle an old sea serpent: state reform. During his general policy speech, he announced the creation of a special fund entirely dedicated to this complex task. Omitting in passing that a fund for the transformation of public action had already been launched in 2017, under the leadership of a certain Emmanuel Macron. A symbol that this forgetfulness.
Multiple attempts
The idea is clearly not new, far from it. It even dates back to the beginning of the last century. “Léon Blum, in the aftermath of the First World War, was interested in it. Later, in 1936, Joseph Caillaux, the inventor of income tax, gave a series of conferences on the reform of the State. of the countries of the Adour.
Since then, attempts, there have been many, probably too much. With most often very few results. Organic law relating to finance laws (LOLF) under Jacques Chirac in 2001. General revision of public policies (RGPP) under Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. Modernization of public action (MAP) under François Hollande in 2012. So many barbarian acronyms For the same goal: to improve state efficiency. “The LOLF is probably the only text that has really resulted in proven and indisputable results. It is, in a way, the counterexample of other state reforms, often reduced to simple verbal incantations without real effects”, deplore Michel Casteigts.
This specialist in the question was a member of the central investigation committee on the cost and performance of public services – created in 1947 – before it was deleted by Nicolas Sarkozy with the implementation of the RGPP. A report on the subject, commanded by the president of the Court of Auditors of the time, Philippe Seguin, was however ready just before his coming to power. “He was swept away due to a conflict between Sarkozy and Seguin. The latter had still asked us to publish it, in the form of an article,” says Michel Casteigts. One example among many of the blockages that may exist within the administration.
Refractory administration
Because wanting to reform the State is to attack representatives of the public service directly. “As soon as a project aims to remove an instance, resistances are quickly organized: everyone defends their role by deeming it essential, explains political scientist Pierre Bauby, author of numerous works on public action. Each attempt at reform aimed at Lightening the structures arouses distrust and opposition “. Added to this is the fact that there has never been a specific request from French society. This quest has always been the fruit “of a discourse produced by the State itself. State reform often served as a bias to avoid responding directly to specific social demands”, underlines Michel Casteigts.
However, there is matter to act. 5.67 million civil servants – including 2.52 million in the State Public Service -, 1,000 public agencies400,000 standards. The figures of the French bureaucracy are dizzy. “The legislative process promotes the accumulation of rules and exceptions. Some bills begin with 20 articles and count 120 on arrival, adding endless details, notes Pierre Bauby. France is the European country which produces The most standards. -Administrative Leaf. “
The right time?
It is to this accumulation that François Bayrou intends to rub. Faced with the degradation of public finances, the need to degrease both in ministries and among state operators becomes urgent. But the mission is perilous. “Its objective is to resolve an almost insoluble equation: reducing the budget of administrations, while maintaining the bulk of public services and preserving the efficiency perceived by the public, a decisive criterion for voting voters”, remarks Michel Casteigts .
Above all, is the moment timely? “A deep reform of the State will only be able to actually lead to immersed after the election of a new president, when he still benefits from a state of grace,” said Pierre Bauby. This was the case for Emmanuel Macron in 2017, when everything seemed to smile. And again, the resistances were perennial. “Just for the abolition of the ENA, it took two years and the establishment of a commission for this to happen,” recalls the expert. The situation is very different today. And for François Bayrou, the challenge promises to be all the more ambitious.
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