This Monday, November 4, Michel Barnier brought together his ministers in a seminar with the aim of bringing out proposals to be implemented over three years by the end of the year, thus allowing him to plan beyond the marathon current budget which is severely testing his coalition. “Work” was the watchword of the ministers when they arrived at Matignon shortly before 9 a.m. The meeting was followed by a lunch which ended around 2 p.m.
At the end of the seminar, the Prime Minister invited his ministers from the right and the center to “ensure team spirit and collective spirit”, according to the services of government spokesperson Maud Bregeon, while disagreements are increasing around the budget. “We will make progress to decide better together and listen to each other before making decisions, despite the extremely urgent circumstances,” promised Michel Barnier.
Preoccupied since his appointment two months ago by the urgency of preparing the 2025 budget, the Prime Minister wanted to show that he was there for the long haul. And this, without worrying about the sword of Damocles of voting for a motion of censure in December when he will probably engage the responsibility of his government to have these perilous finance bills definitively adopted.
“Vision in 5 years, action in 3 years”, this is the new leitmotif at Matignon, in reference to 2029, the date set for France’s return to European budgetary standards and to 2027, the next presidential election.
After a first seminar in September to prepare his general policy declaration, Michel Barnier wants through this second “collective meeting”, which will be followed by a third in December, to arrive at “concrete proposals on the priorities of the French” which will be presented in an action plan, according to those around him.
“Cohesion”
On the menu for forty ministers on Monday, five themes: State/communities, work/social benefits (“encouraging work”), immigration/integration (“supervising immigration to better integrate”), overseas and simplification. A referent minister will manage each theme and the objective will be to define “one or two priority measures” to be implemented, according to Matignon.
Two ministers spoke on the current context: the Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad on “European issues”, the Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand on the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. To “finance our social model and if we want to maintain it, we will have to work more,” Antoine Armand said on Europe 1 on Monday.
The seminar concluded with a lunch “with the objective of cohesion” while the coalition between the right and the central bloc is illustrated by its disagreements on a number of subjects, including immigration. This lack of unity is seen almost daily in the Assembly on budgetary texts that are little defended or even contested by part of the majority. The government has been defeated on numerous occasions on tax issues, such as the overhaul of employer contributions rejected Thursday by the Macronists, the right and the National Rally.