During nearly two hours of a hearing, where tension rose several times, Gabriel Attal defended himself step by step for having let the expenses slip away. “As soon as I arrived on January 9, my chief of staff informed me of the difficulties we were going to have to face and the very degraded situation of our public accounts. » Particularly on the question of “our recipes. » Precisely what Bruno Le Maire had explained the day before, explaining that the forecast models had “gone wrong.” »
“20 billion savings”
Faced with this, Gabriel Attal highlighted the speed of his government's response. “As of January 21, Bruno Le Maire announces the end of the shield on the price of electricity,” he underlines. This resulted in the increase in the tax on the price of electricity from 1 to 21 euros, for “6 billion additional revenue”, specifies the former Prime Minister who continues: “As of January 22, Bruno The Mayor and Catherine Vautrin (then Minister of Health) announced the doubling of medical deductibles, or 800 million savings. »
“When there is a gap of 50 billion in 9 months, it is a form of indigence”
But above all, in February, with the deterioration of public accounts confirmed, the decision was made to make “20 billion euros in savings”, he recalls. Thus, on February 21, the decree canceling 10.2 billion euros in credits was signed. This is “the first floor” of the answer. The second must be based on another 10 billion in savings. These are based on the following scenario: “In July,” he explains, “we are freezing 16.5 billion euros of credits in order to be able to cancel a large majority of them at the end of the year. » The government is also working on “a package of measures” for savings in “the social sphere” and on “three billion additional revenues” through taxes on share buybacks and energy companies. Measures which will remain pending due to the dissolution.
“A gap of 50 billion”
However, Gabriel Attal did not convince the Senate Finance Committee any more than Bruno Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave. Thus Jean-François Husson, the general rapporteur of the budget in the Senate, did not adhere to the version of the former Prime Minister, pointing out a series of announcements on “new expenditure” for “agriculture”, “health”, on “emergency aid for the organic sector”, “the payment of the energy check”, “on Ukraine”… “It’s going completely to hell,” he attacks. When there is a gap of 50 billion in 9 months, it is a form of indigence and a lack of rigor in the keeping of our accounts. »
