For Éric Lombard, the Minister of the Economy, who begins his consultations with political groups on Monday January 6, the priority is the budget. And the task promises to be particularly difficult, to the point that, not without humor, he calls himself a superhero, a “Spiderman“. It is up to him to reduce the deficit and its abysmal debt, without killing growth, while stimulating investor confidence, then to have his budget adopted without being censored.
In addition, he will have to manage some constraints, including some financial and constitutional, that the Barnier government did not have. The first is time. To prevent 600,000 French people from falling into income tax, and 18 million paying more, according to the latest figures from Bercy, we need a budget with a scale indexed to inflation before the month of March.
Furthermore, the longer we wait, the more fragile the economy becomes. Business communities and markets are growing impatient. And activity is contracting. “France cannot live in minimum service with a special law”also recognizes Amélie de Montchalin, the Minister of Public Accounts in the Parisian-Today in FranceMonday morning.
So, to move faster, the government will start from the old budget. The budgetary texts currently being examined, in particular the version resulting from the Senate, will serve as a basis. The problem is that more than ten billion euros are missing, according to Amélie de Montchalin. However, the minister promises savings without increasing taxes too much, so as not to penalize the middle class.
To find money, the government must come up with new ideas. Bercy wants to keep the tax on plane tickets and the tax on share buybacks. He also wants to keep the exceptional contribution on large companies, even if he cannot take it back as it stands, as it would be unconstitutional.
An additional difficulty arises for Éric Lombard, he must face additional expenses, such as the indexation of all pensions to inflation, which represents 6 billion euros. The problem of France's finances will therefore not be resolved immediately. The government is aiming for a deficit that is not significantly above 5% of GDP, probably 5.4%.
