The alarm bells rang all the way to Blois (Loir-et-Cher), where the MoDem congress was held this weekend.
While the accounts are in the red - the public deficit should even exceed 5.5% - François Bayrou warned not to fall
“into the casualness of debt”
.
“It is a lack of respect and the elementary duty that we owe to the generations who will follow us,”
he thundered, after being re-elected without surprise at the head of his movement.
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Without blaming successive governments, Emmanuel Macron's historic ally highlighted
“two historic shocks”
with the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine, which weighed down public finances.
“When a question as serious as Ukraine arises, with an energy crisis, inflation, who can believe that we are safe?”
, he asked.
While the boss of Bercy, Bruno Le Maire, announced a 10 billion euro savings plan a month ago, François Bayrou insisted on the need to
“open a new page of economic policy”
.
He also keeps his eyes fixed on the American neighbor, which has launched
“a development project based on the powerful support of its central bank”
.
“Now is not the time to suddenly stop growth.
The imbalance will increase, the United States has an extremely offensive strategy
,” he continued, to the applause of his troops.
“Priority to investment, to activity”
The High Commissioner for Planning even took the opportunity to send a message to the head of Renaissance's European list, Valérie Hayer, seated in the front row:
“One of the elements of the program that we must defend before the French is that you will try in Parliament to put pressure on the European Central Bank to be even more supportive of growth and employment.”
Not a word, however, on the “fiscal justice” measures, such as the taxation of superdividends, which his troops have been demanding for several years.
“What I am going to defend from this platform is not exactly what I have defended for decades
,” warned François Bayrou.
However, the historic position of his party was recently taken up in an interview with Le
Figaro
by the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Without convincing the government, Bruno Le Maire immediately ruled out the possibility of a “
tax increase”
.
“Priority to investment, to activity, to the reduction of standards, to simplification
,” the founder of MoDem simply insisted.
From the star-studded stage on Saturday evening, Gabriel Attal increased his appeals to the Béarnais, he who has always been attached to the
“recovery”
of public finances.
This, while the budgetary efforts risk causing the presidential troops to waver.
The Prime Minister also assured that the majority did not belong to the
“camp of those who want to bequeath debt, deficits and future tax increases”
, but to the
“camp of those who want to invest”
.
The head of government wants to accelerate, particularly on
“work”
to build
“a less costly and more efficient social model”
.
“We will take responsibility for moving forward with
the reform of unemployment insurance ,
”
he promised.
A highly flammable subject which could ignite sparks in the majority, including in the ranks of the MoDem.