Budget: Michel Barnier “opened a few doors”, believes Christian Poiret, president of the Northern department

“A dialogue has opened with the Prime Minister. There is a certain confidence, there is a method, he has opened a few doors. So we will see”declared this Monday Christian Poiretback from the meetings of the association of Departments of France, where Michel Barnier spoke this Friday.

“We are not closing the budget”

At the end of the week, faced with the budgetary restrictions requested by the government as part of the 2025 budget, several department presidents announced their intention to suspend the payment of RSA to family welfare funds.

“It is the CAF that the Departments would not pay, and not the RSA beneficiaries who would always be paid (by the State, editor’s note)”specifies the president of the Northern Department, who does not consider using the most precarious to put pressure on the State: “No, we use the CAF.” For the Northern department, the RSA represents 600 million euros of expenditure (for a budget of 3.8 billion).

If several departments have decided to put pressure on the government, it is because, without new revenue, the budgetary calculations look tight. “We are not closing the budget of the Nord department, it is missing 115 million, affirmed this Monday Christian Poiret, guest of France Bleu Nord. We are going to have to make arbitrations and I wonder: where do we make them? On the elderly? On disabled people? On the children of the ASE? I'm asking myself a lot of questions right now.”

“We are going to very significantly reduce the effort required of you by the finance bill,” Michel Barnier said this Friday to the presidents of departments. “I would especially like the government to compensate us for the VAT that it plans to freeze us, replies Christian Poiret, who specifies that the Nord Department is one of those which have escaped budget cuts. However, “we no longer have financial and fiscal autonomy”, he explains: “Today, there are no more property taxes. The State gives us the value of the property tax, but it was on VAT. So, we are going to lose 30 million from the Northern departments. I would like them to reconsider this position as well.”