Two weeks after the announcement of a savings plan of 10 billion euros, Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave submitted this Wednesday to questions from deputies and senators on these vast cuts in the state budget.
The Minister of Economy and Finance and his colleague delegate for Public Accounts are expected at 3 p.m. before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, then at 5 p.m. before that of the Senate.
This savings plan was enacted by decree rather than via a draft amending finance law (PLFR) which would have obliged the government to submit these ten billion cuts to Parliament for approval, a perilous exercise at a time when the presidential camp only has a relative majority in the National Assembly.
“A massive and blind blow decided on a corner of the table at Bercy,” budget specialist Charles de Courson (Liot group) was indignant at the end of February.
“Cool the machine”
According to Bruno Le Maire in an interview with Le Monde, the public deficit will be "significantly above 4.9%" in 2023, the objective set by the government, due to lower tax revenues.
At the same time, he insisted on wanting to reduce public spending, hence the recent announcement of 10 billion in budget cuts in 2024 which “are not a slash but an emergency brake”.
The objective is to reduce the deficit to 4.4% of GDP in 2024, 3% in 2027 before aiming for a balanced budget in 2032. “Reduce state spending alone by 10 billion euros is a first step.
We do this without calling into question the major public policies defended by the President of the Republic: the environment, education, health, work have seen their budgets increase since 2017,” he explains, specifying: “ I reassure you, we are very far from austerity when we are at 58% of public spending in GDP!
There is 496 billion euros in state spending per year, we are saving 10 billion: we will recover from it.”
“At some point, you simply have to cool the machine, because growth is affected by the new geopolitical environment and tax revenues are declining.
When we earn less, we spend less,” he adds in the daily.
The government was forced to lower its growth forecast to 1% for 2024, compared to 1.4% in the initial budget.
Other steps to come
He warned that this reduction in spending was only a first step, before a possible "amended finance bill in the summer, if necessary", then the need to find at least 12 billion euros of additional savings in 2025. He also calls for the elimination of all Cerfa by 2030 but also for a definitive takeover of unemployment insurance by the State.
“It is essential to continue structural reforms.
A reform of unemployment insurance is necessary to achieve full employment, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is right to point out.
We maintain the longest compensation period among developed countries: eighteen months.
The responsibility of the social partners is the employees.
The responsibility of the State is all those who are unemployed.
For my part, I consider that the State should regain control of unemployment insurance definitively,” he specifies.
Still, some future cuts risk making people cringe.
If Bruno Le Maire affirms that he refuses to increase taxes, the cut in certain social expenditures could be less well accepted in public opinion.
“Governing means knowing how to give up certain secondary expenses to finance priority expenses.
I believe in a strong State but not in a State which disperses itself and finances everything and becomes a money pump.
Is it possible to continue spending 5.7 billion euros per year on medical transport for patients?
How can we avoid drift in expenses linked to long-term conditions while continuing to protect patients?
»