A horizon at last, but still so many questions. During his long press conference at the Elysée, Tuesday January 16, Emmanuel Macron specified that the tax cut of 2 billion euros for the middle classes, which had been in the pipeline for several months already, would take place “as soon as 2025.” This promise is not new. The Head of State first mentioned it in May 2023, on the sidelines of the Choose France summit, without specifying a real deadline, other than the end of his second five-year term.
Subsequently, according to his own declarations and those of his ministers, the calendar oscillated between 2025 and 2027. This gesture seems more akin to an electoral promise than anything else. Does he have the European elections in his sights, or even the municipal elections in 2026? Or does he want to prepare the ground for his successor?
Bercy at work
The date having now been set – provided that the vagaries of the economic situation do not postpone it, once again, indefinitely… – we must find the money. It is therefore up to Bercy to phosphorus. Proposals will soon be submitted to Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. At a time of the end of “whatever it takes” and the restoration of public finances, the promise of the Head of State clashes with the discourse maintained in recent weeks at the Ministry of the Economy.
During his vows at the beginning of January, Bruno Le Maire had nevertheless prepared people’s minds: “The hardest part is ahead of us”, he declared, martially. His challenge? Find “at least” 12 billion euros in savings in 2025 to try to limit the explosion of French public debt as much as possible. With this tax cut in hand, the mission becomes particularly complicated. The preparation of the 2025 Budget has already started. But the unusual precocity of the exercise will not make the final equation any easier.