The executive tightens the belt. In an interview given to Figaro, the Minister in charge of Public Accounts announced on Wednesday July 12 that the 2024 budget will provide for “savings” in certain sectors. Gabriel Attal does not hesitate to ring the alarm bell and to use strong words: “Deleveraging is a national emergency. And for good reason: the public debt has exceeded the symbolic threshold of 3000 billion euros for the first time. in the first quarter, INSEE said at the end of June. “We assume to prefer a proactive, but gradual reduction in debt to austerity which would have harmful consequences on economic activity”, explained Gabriel Attal who will present the 2024 budget to the autumn hammering that this “ambitious commitment” will be “kept”.
This budget is based on three pillars: debt reduction, support for the middle classes and the fight against fraud. “Since July 1, for example, we no longer pay family allowances to accounts abroad outside the EU, as I had promised,” he said. In the columns of the daily, the minister says he wants to address the middle classes in particular, those who “feel too rich to be poor and too poor to be rich.” Last May, President Emmanuel Macron also made a gesture towards this social category announcing a tax cut of two billion euros in their favor, in an inflationary context.
While Bruno Le Maire mentioned, on July 10, a possible break in tax cuts, Gabriel Attal assured “that in 2027, the French and businesses [en] will pay less than in 2022 […] What is certain is that our ambition to reduce taxation in the five-year term will not experience a break.” However, the reduction of the debt will be synonymous with efforts for the French does not hide Gabriel Attal, who confides that there will be a need for a “global effort”. However, there is no question of pronouncing the angry words. “We cannot speak of austerity in a country which continues to spend more than it earns, a country which continues to invest massively in public services”, he nuanced. Remarks in accordance with his declarations of last March: “Our objective is to stabilize the public debt in 2026, and to start repay in 2027. We assume not to do brutal austerity.”
“We will also have to take responsibility”
Where will the government make budget cuts? In the viewfinder, there are the cost-contracts. For apprenticeship contracts, these are the annual support amounts defined according to the diploma in question and the branch of the company concerned. “Some private establishments make large profits by invoicing state-funded training at a high price with very high margin levels. We will take back part of these margins. I am also thinking of the subsidized contracts that we will again reduce significantly”, commented Gabriel Attal. As a reminder, an “assisted contract allows the employer to benefit from aid to reduce the cost of hiring”, defines the site of the French administration.
The executive is also considering cuts in the Social Security budget. “On the prescriber side, there is, for example, a problem with the surge in sick leave in teleconsultation. On the side of companies and users, it will also be necessary to make them accountable”, he hammered. Words which should reassure the Court of Auditors which estimated, Thursday, June 29, that the government will have to make “a substantial effort” in terms of spending to bring France’s public deficit back to European benchmarks by 2027. “France’s debt reduction effort is long overdue”, reprimanded its president, Pierre Moscovici, the first president of the Court of Auditors, on 3 July interviewed by Euroactiv.
And on the more political side? Gabriel Attal took the opportunity to reveal his wish for a new rule: “If the opposition votes against a budget, it must propose an alternative budget. Because I believe that if the opposition has the right to oppose, it has above all the duty to propose. For the first time, I will therefore give all parliamentarians, even those in opposition, the possibility of asking my administration to quantify some of their proposals so that they can imagine alternatives, countermeasures -budgets.” One thing is certain: the government has planned to turn the page on “whatever the cost.”