They should also have to make an “effort”, as former Prime Minister Michel Barnier asked. This Wednesday, the Senate adopted an amendment to the 2025 finance bill aimed at removing the expenditure envelope for former Presidents of the Republic and former Prime Ministers, reports Public Senate.
Concretely, this elimination represents 2.8 million euros in savings per year.
The former heads of state and prime ministers “are not in great need of the Republic, they all have a certain number of pensions and all have consultant positions,” explained UDI senator from Orne Nathalie Goulet. “I checked, no one is at Restos du coeur,” she also quipped.
Car, office, premises…
In principle, former French Prime Ministers are entitled, after their mandate, to a car with driver, as well as a secretariat – if they do not already have one through an elected mandate or another public function. These expenses reached 1.42 million euros in 2023, an increase of 11% compared to the previous year, according to the budget report tabled by the deputy (LR) for Jura Marie-Christine Dalloz. In detail, the heaviest expenses recorded last year were those of Bernard Cazeneuve (201,387 euros), Dominique de Villepin (197,534 euros) and Jean-Pierre Raffarin (167,467 euros).
Former presidents of the Republic are also entitled, after their departure from power, to a vehicle with driver, as well as a cabinet with seven members and two service agents. A former president is also entitled to furnished premises, equipped at public expense. His activities related to his former functions are also covered by the State. And if the ex-president has not been in power for more than five years, his cabinet is reduced to three members and a service agent. According to the parliamentary report by Marie-Christine Dalloz, 1.32 million euros were paid in 2023 for Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
-“When we ask the French to make efforts, they would not understand that the State does not start with itself and by avoiding superfluous expenditure,” justified centrist senator Michel Canevet.
The need for security in defense of these advantages
In the midst of a debate on state budgetary restrictions, Michel Barnier himself, when he was in office, asked for “an effort from former ministers and former prime ministers”, praising a “more sober” state. This was opposed by the former Prime Minister, who has since become Minister of Education, Élisabeth Borne, who considered that “protection and security seemed appropriate”, taking into account the “not all popular” reforms. that she wore during her mandate.
The government opposed this amendment. “It is appropriate, all the same, in a world as dangerous as ours, with delinquency on the ground or with international risks which can be aggression, espionage, that we imagine only former personalities who occupied very important functions in the Republic can have a travel and especially protection service,” defended the Minister responsible for Relations with Parliament, Patrick Mignola.
The amendment fixing the elimination of these advantages must still be the subject of the parliamentary shuttle.
