Clearly, this start of the year is not a smooth ride for Bruno the Mayor. While he has already announced 10 billion cuts in state spending in 2024 and plans 20 billion additional savings in 2025, the tenant of Bercy finds himself under pressure from the Senate. The general rapporteur of the Finance Committee of the upper house, Jean-François Husson, was invited this Thursday, March 21 to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance to try to find out more about the extent of the deficit of France in 2023.
An “exhibition and on-site” control which “aims to obtain communication of all the notes and documents produced by the Bercy services and explaining this deterioration”, summarizes the commission in a press release, which sees in the “clear lack of information available to Parliament”, a mark of “contempt” from the government towards the legislative power.
A deficit which would be around 5.6% of GDP
Because if no official figure has yet been published, the objective of 4.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) targeted by the executive is likely not to be achieved. On the contrary, the deficit would even “significantly” exceed Bercy’s forecasts. Let it be 5.6%, as our colleagues from the Echoesor 5.5% as assured Le Figarothe account is not there.
And five days before the publication of the official figure for the public deficit for 2023 by INSEE, questions are abounding in the cozy lounges of the Palais du Luxembourg: “Since when has this deterioration been known? What is its exact extent? What are the factors (lower revenue, increased expenditure)? What impact on the recovery trajectory […] which would seem at first glance to be completely called into question?” or even: “How could (the government) have made a mistake of around 20 billion euros on its budgetary trajectory?”
In any case, the Finance Committee of the upper house wants to be clear: “The Senate must intervene to understand how it was possible to arrive at a level of deficit which, if it were confirmed at 5.6% , would never have been achieved under the Fifth Republic outside of recession and crisis.”
An amended finance bill excluded
The pressure from the senators comes the day after a tight committee meeting at the Château. Surrounded by several ministers and a few executives from the majority, the President of the Republic reportedly declared on Wednesday evening: “We must face a cyclical economic shock linked in particular to geopolitics. We assume and we tell the truth to the French.” It remains that if the deficit is slipping, the executive could be forced to present a draft amending finance law (PLFR) to Parliament.
An option that Emmanuel Macron seems to have already ruled out. Too risky. Even more so at a time when the presidential camp only has a relative majority in the National Assembly and could thus be exposed to a vote of censure. Questioned Thursday in Brussels about the possibility of a PLFR, the head of state decided not to comment. He only insisted: “France must be clear: we must be responsible in terms of public finances and keep our anchors.”
At the Palais Bourbon, the president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, Eric Coquerel, is categorical: there is no question of stripping public spending. According to him, the expected slippage in the deficit “does not originate from an increase in expenditure but from a drop in revenue”, he assured on X (formerly Twitter). And the Insoumis executive warns: “If we further reduce public spending, it will further contract economic activity and therefore tax revenues.”