Teresa Suarez/EPA
French Prime Minister François Bayrou.
“Increasing taxes” to rebalance public finances is “unsustainable,” says the French Prime Minister. Objective is to produce more to finance the country’s public services.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou warned Tuesday to the situation of the country’s over-indebted economy, without sufficient production and with a lower level of employment than its competitors, and announced a immediate shock plan.
“There are crucial dates on the government’s political agenda, decisive hours, and this is one of them,” said François Bayrou at a press conference to mark the launch of the 2026 budget warning committee, which he said he wants to “speak the language of truth” to the French.
At a conference with members of his government, Bayrou pointed out that the country’s situation is aggravated by international criseswhich require an increase in defense effort, and by the launched by the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
Faced with the strategic turnaround of the United States, “the European Union has an imperative duty to build an autonomous defense,” thanks to “a huge shared effort, necessary by other European countries,” in which “French effort” will be reinforceddeclared the head of government.
For this reason, the French head of government estimated that “ about three billion euros supplementary ”in the 2026 defense budget to ensure “independence in terms of security and defense” of France and the European Union.
OBJECTIVE: Produce more
At a time when you want save 40 billion euros by 2026between increased revenue and reducing expenses, to reduce the public deficit of 5.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 4.6%, the objective of the head of French government is to produce more to finance French public services.
“If our ‘per capita’ production was at the level of our European neighbors, we would not have a budgetary deficit and our fellow citizens who earn about 2,000 euros a month would approach 2,500 euros,” Bayrou said, arguing that France is “the world of the world that spends the most public money.”
Despite that, The country “is far from being at the top of the OECD classification in terms of living level, unemployment rate or inequality”added the prime minister, considering that “a rebalancing of public finances is possible.”
“The inevitability of excessive debt is unacceptable because we will not be able to support the burden sustainably”, which could “reach 100 billion euros by 2029”, compared to 67 billion by 2025, according to Bayrou, who insists that The debt spiral is “a vicious circlea dangerous, potentially irreversible trap. ”
François Bayrou, who considers that “increasing taxes” to rebalance public finances is “unsustainable”, also summoned a meeting for July 14 to propose “great guidelines” and the “large choices” resulting from the diagnosis.
“Our goal is to propose them until July 14, so that we can have a clearer view of the possibilities and opportunities ahead,” he said.
Bayrou, elected in December, had already warned at the beginning of his term that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better than me,” he said as he received the Barnier folder: he is a “difficulty Himalayas.”
Risk of censorship motion
With the polls and Injunction accusations After four months in office, centrist François Bayrou now intends to start a method of “co -responsibility” with the French.
The monetary effort of 40 million euros supplementary to the 2026 budget is at risk of a censorship motion by parties of far-right National Union (RN) and the left Radical French Insubmissa (LFI).
“If the plan is to ask the French to squeeze the belt without the state making savings in immigration, the cost of living of the state and local collectivities, we will do everything to censor it,” RN Vice President Sébastien Chenu said before the conference.
On the other hand, the left is concerned with the “Recessive impact” of the new economies on growth already weakened by the uncertainties linked to the United States protectionist policy.
