They are expected at the turning point, the day after the presentation of the executive’s economic roadmap. Antoine Armand, Minister of the Economy and Finance and Laurent Saint-Martin, Minister responsible for the Budget and Public Accounts, are heard this Friday morning by the Finance Committee of the National Assembly on the draft finance law for 2025 , starting at 8:30 a.m., announces the Palais-Bourbon on its website. Exchanges to follow live in our video stream.
The government of Michel Barnier detailed its proposed budget for next year on Thursday, explaining how it intended to find “60 billion euros” in savings, an unprecedented amount under the Fifth Republic, in the finance bills ( PLF) and financing of social security (PLFSS) which will be fiercely debated in the National Assembly where it is in the minority.
“Be responsible in a serious situation”
With a roadmap focused on reducing the number of civil servants, with in particular 4,000 professor positions eliminated, and an increase in taxes for large companies and the richest, the executive hopes to succeed in cleaning up public finances, in a very unstable political climate, while the oppositions have already crushed this draft budget.
Despite tensions over tax increases even in the presidential camp supposed to support him, Prime Minister Michel Barnier is aiming for a shared effort to preserve French credibility with the financial markets and the EU, which has singled out Paris for its excessive deficits . Wanting to be “responsible rather than popular”, he wants to “prevent a crisis whose first victims would be the weakest among us”, according to his spokesperson.
There is urgency in the face of a “serious” situation, also insisted the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin. “We must make courageous choices now to avoid painful choices later,” he declared, however defending himself against “any fiscal bludgeoning” or “austerity cure.” Invited on RTL this Friday morning, just before his hearing, he argued again that it was “a balanced budget to be able to be responsible in a situation which is serious, that of a public deficit which is increasing and ‘is not sustainable.’
“Faced with the deficit which continues to slip away, we must take measures”, also supported the Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand, invited for his part on France 2, defending “a recovery budget” in the face of a debt of “more of 3,000 billion euros, which places us among the most indebted countries in Europe.
He also assured that the government took into account, in developing the 2025 budget, the “careful look” that the rating agencies are taking on the country, while Fitch is due to unveil its diagnosis of the French economy this Friday, which could lead to a status quo or a downgrade of its rating.
