In an interview for the television company BFM on Monday evening, Bayrou said that the state’s budget deficit needs to be reduced from this year’s 6.1 percent of GDP to around 5 percent next year.
– I think we need to land somewhere around five, a little over five, to be able to reach an agreement and achieve balance, Bayrou said according to Bloomberg.
A difficult balancing act awaits
The centrist politician Bayrou has a difficult balancing act ahead of him before the budget is presented in mid-February.
After the election last summer, the parliament consists of three blocks of approximately equal size, none of which has a majority. When the opposition on the right and the left came together to bring down the previous government, there was nothing that could save it. The left-wing party Indomitable France is already talking about a new vote in January.
Companies can get away with it more easily
The previous government wanted to raise taxes and cut spending by 60 billion euros to trim the budget deficit to 5 percent of GDP next year. In the long term, until 2029, it would then gradually drop to 3 percent.
Bayrou is now opening for a slightly higher deficit next year, at the same time saying that the companies will have to bear a smaller part of the burden than Barnier’s government wanted.
– Companies are the nation’s treasure. They create wealth. They create jobs, he says in the television interview.