The first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure at the National Assembly in Paris, February 6, 2023 (AFP / Ludovic MARIN)
“France needs a budget,” said the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure on Tuesday, under penalty of “chaos” while his party is being courted by the government to avoid new censorship on budgetary texts.
“What is needed is a budget for France, because France must be governed, because I also know that chaos would in reality give rise to a situation which would firstly be unfavorable to the most vulnerable, the richest always get away with it,” Olivier Faure said on France Inter.
The day after a meeting in Bercy with the Minister of Finance, Éric Lombard, from the left, he nevertheless reiterated his conditions.
On pensions, he called for “a global discussion”, while maintaining his request for a “suspension” of the reform raising the retirement age to 64, an “important signal” according to him.
“I do not want to leave in a vacuum (…) There are financing needs today – this year around 3 billion, at the end of the decade, 15 billion – so we cannot consider that it would simply be enough to repeal and leave it at that,” he argued. And he developed his request: “start by suspending (…), having a financing conference (…) at the end of which we can transition to a new system, find alternative financing”.
Beyond that, he asked the government to reverse the 4,000 job cuts planned in National Education and to “finance Ségur”, which made it possible to increase salaries in the hospital environment after the Covid-19 crisis. .
Promising to “very firmly oppose” the measures proposed by “the right wing or even the extreme right” of the government, he repeated that “on the budgetary question, on the question of the daily life of the French, we must move forward” .
The day before, upon leaving Bercy, the leader of the Socialists had demanded “remarkable concessions” from the government so as not to move towards censorship.
Olivier Faure repeated that he was “in opposition” while being “open to compromise”. For him, “in the New Popular Front, there is a majority of parliamentarians who are for dialogue”.
“If there are openings, the possibility of improving people's lives, (…), there we will be the driving force behind this change”, seemed to confirm Fabien Roussel, the leader of the communists, on TF1, hoping make his “contribution” during the meeting in Bercy scheduled for Wednesday.
On the question of pensions, he proposed to “jump the age measurement until the next presidential election which will be a moment of great political debate”, in 2027.
The Minister of Finance and the Minister of the Budget Amélie de Montchalin continue to receive political parties and groups all week. Tuesday, Édouard Philippe and the representatives of Horizons are expected, then the leader of the Les Républicains senators Mathieu Darnaud.
