The new French Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, will deliver his general policy speech to the National Assembly this Tuesday, October 1, at 3 p.m., a high-risk exercise in a context of political fragmentation and budgetary scarcity.
Rising taxes, all-out savings while the public deficit could reach 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, immigration against a backdrop of pressure from the far right are among the burning issues on which the former envoy is expected European, aged 73, whose negotiating skills are more than ever put to the test.
“I want the effort to be fair. Controlling public spending means that the State must spend less, spend better”said Michel Barnier in an interview published Saturday in the Journal de Saône-et-Loire before a visit to Mâcon.
In matters of taxation, “I will protect from any tax increase those who are on the ground, who work, who produce. We will appeal in an exceptional way to those who can contribute”, added the Prime Minister, whose remarks will be nourished by the ideas presented during the government seminar organized on Friday in Matignon.
According to information from several media including Le Monde, he plans, among other things, to levy eight billion euros from large groups and to tax share buybacks.
The presidential camp, allied with Michel Barnier in the government, is opposed to any tax increase, which was the hallmark of the “macronism” over the past seven years.
By launching his “Popular” political movement in Tourcoing (North) on Sunday, the former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, recalled his opposition to this hypothesis, also rejected by the former Prime Minister who became boss of the Renaissance deputies, Gabriel Attal.
Security and migration policy
In addition to public finances, Michel Barnier is expected to discuss security and migration policy, themes on which the new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, gave a very firm speech, approved by the far right.
Cantor of “restoration of order”, the Vendée senator wants to increase the period of detention of people subject to an obligation to leave French territory, review State medical aid open to foreigners in an irregular situation and he says he is in favor of a referendum on immigration.
It is at 3 p.m., Paris time, that Michel Barnier will speak to the 577 deputies resulting from the early elections decided by the Head of State, now focused on foreign policy, at a time when the Middle East is on fire. -East. Which did not prevent him from finding out about the intentions of the head of government during a meeting Monday morning at the Elysée.
The left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) plans to immediately draw up a motion of censure which has little chance of being voted on, where the National Rally does not envisage any veto “a priori” while brandishing the threat of bringing down the government if its policies do not suit it.
With 142 deputies, allies included, which allows it to play the role of arbiter at the Palais-Bourbon, the far right is entering a troubled period with the trial for embezzlement of European funds which opened Monday before the criminal court from Paris.
Marine Le Pen, who is one of the defendants, risks a sentence of ineligibility. Michel Barnier will speak on Wednesday in the Senate where the Republican right, his political family, is in the majority.
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