The 2025 budget promises to be crucial for the economic future of France. Faced with a public debt reaching 113% of GDP (3,200 billion euros) and annual state expenditure amounting to 1,500 billion euros, a survey by the Observatoire Hexagone, carried out in partnership with the IFOP and relayed by The Echoesreveals a very pragmatic vision of the French.
A refocusing on sovereign functions
The Hexagon Observatory survey, based on a sample of 2,000 people, highlights the pragmatism of the French with regard to what their budgetary priorities would be. First revelation: the latter would like to refocus state spending on its sovereign functions and on the environment, while rebalancing social positions.
The French indeed place security, defense and justice at the top of their priorities. These sovereign functions represent only 6% of public spending, whereas for the French, it is the first priority position for the State. The ideal budget imagined by citizens would be three times higher than today's, in other words, it would increase to 22% of the total share of state expenditure. Concretely, this would result in an increase of 90 billion euros for the public security budget, which would increase it to 144 billion euros, compared to 54 billion currently. The Defense budget would increase, for its part, to 67.4 billion euros, and that of Justice to 35.5 billion euros (i.e. double the amount currently allocated to it).
The environment, a rising priority
The climate and ecological transition are also emerging as one of the major priorities for the French.
70% of survey respondents would in fact like the State to invest more in the ecological transition, the energy transition, the fight against global warming or even the protection of ecosystems. They would thus increase the budget intended for it from 67 billion to 94 billion.
Budget cuts
Reducing public debt is one of the main concerns of the French (48% of them). In fact, the latter are in favor of doubling of the resources allocated to its reimbursement, which would increase them from 53 to 123 billion euros.
As mentioned previously, the budgetary priorities of the French reflect a vision which is above all pragmatic, which implies sacrifices according to them, particularly in social spending. The French would therefore consider reducing the pensions budget to 344 billion euros, a cut of 200 billion. Social protection, which includes unemployment and family assistance, would also suffer a drop of 85 billion to reach 179 billion. The health sector, for its part, although less affected, would see its budget reduced to 323 billion per year. These adjustments reflect the desire of citizens to refocus social spending on essential needs.
Finally, the positions considered less priority which emerge from this survey are: leisure, culture and international aid. Economic and military aid abroad would suffer a reduction of 56%, falling to 9 billion euros. Likewise, budgets for leisure and culture would be reduced by 26%, reaching 29 billion. A survey which is enough to give ideas to the government, especially since that of November 28, 2024 by Ifop Fiducial for South Radio indicated that 2 out of 3 French people are against the budget presented by the government.
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