The evidence has finally become clear, for Emmanuel Macron as for his supporters, over the weeks of budgetary debate in the National Assembly: the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, will not follow in the footsteps of the President of the Republic , from which it nevertheless draws its frail legitimacy. Contrary to what he may have suggested to the Head of State during his appointment in September, the Savoyard does not consider himself bound by the economic policy implemented by Emmanuel Macron since 2017.
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Out of the blue, Michel Barnier called into question, in the draft budget for 2025, two fundamentals of « Macronomics » : the stability of corporate and household taxation, and exemptions from employer contributions. “On the economic level, a turning point has been taken, deplores Renaissance MP Charles Sitzenstuhl: the State is re-capping businesses. » If certain members of the Republicans (LR) have criticized Michel Barnier for not breaking sufficiently with Macronism, the questioning of these two fundamentals is considered heresy in the eyes of Macronists, which will quickly have the effect, alarm- them, to slow down growth and destroy jobs.
Especially since this is not what was initially agreed between the two heads of executive. The day after the legislative elections, while he spoke discreetly with the Secretary General of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler, the former European Commissioner obtained the support of the latter by following the line of Macronist orthodoxy . Where a Xavier Bertrand or a Bernard Cazeneuve, expected for Matignon, stage their firmness against the head of state defeated in the elections, the septuagenarian keeps a low profile, suggesting that he will be a prime minister “aligned”.
“Barnier was more skillful than the others”
His positioning during the LR primary of 2021 gives credibility to this posture: on pensions, he pleaded for a postponement of the legal retirement age to 65 years. On the job, he said he wanted “encourage work and merit, to the detriment of assistantship”in particular by suspending unemployment benefits “after two refusals of a reasonable offer”. He was also in favor of lower taxes, advocating in particular to reduce production taxes (“A typically French anomaly which is weighing down our businesses”he said) and to lower social charges on intermediate salaries. Enough to reassure the Head of State and Macronie.
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