After withdrawing 16 billion euros from the State, the Minister of the Economy and Finance gave a new turn of the screw to the 2024 budget. Guest of South Radio this Monday, October 9, the tenant of Bercy announced its objective of making a billion euros in additional savings “at the end of the parliamentary work” which starts this Tuesday at the Palais Bourbon.
And to assure that he would support the proposals of “all parliamentarians of the majority who wish to make new savings”.
Without providing further details on the nature of the budget cuts that could be made, Bruno Le Maire made it known “that he did not really like taxes”. Message passed to the general rapporteur for the Budget Jean-René Cazeneuve and to the Renaissance deputies who tabled an amendment to the 2023 finance bill in order to renew the tax on refining, i.e. the solidarity contribution on the profits of oil groups.
The worsening of public finances
At the origin of this budgetary austerity denounced by left-wing oppositions, the deficit which continues to widen and aggravates the debt which recently exceeded 3,000 billion euros, and whose burden weighs more and more heavy on the economic health of the state. “If we do nothing, the explosion of debt will paralyze public action,” warned the president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici in an interview with L’Express at the end of September.
Despite the concerns of many political actors, first and foremost the president of MoDem François Bayrou who denounced an “unacceptable” economic situation a few days earlier, Bruno Le Maire wanted to be reassuring. “The economic situation is rather good […] the French economy is holding up well”, he insisted on Monday, while admitting that “our public finances” constituted a “more difficult point”. A consequence of three years of a budgetary policy placed under the sign of ” Whatever it takes”, initiated in the midst of the Covid-19 health crisis. It now remains to be seen what levers the parliamentary majority will use to make Bruno Le Maire’s wish a reality.