battle of numbers for the 2025 budget

The debates on the vote on the 2025 budget of the Île-de-France Region gave rise on Wednesday to political battles over the reality of the amount of envelopes devoted to certain sectors, while the executive plans 760 million euros savings. Faced with the threat of a 5% cut in its revenues in the initial finance bill for 2025, i.e. 221 million euros as well as a loss of 100 million in VAT revenue poorly calculated by the State, the regional council chaired by Valérie Pécresse (LR) plans 760 million euros in savings in 2025 to anticipate “three years of revenue losses”.

Castigating what would be a “planer policy” in the main regional skills of transport and high schools, the regional president reaffirmed her intention to protect these envelopes and to suspend the financing of all projects co-financed with the State, except in transport. L’“white year” concerns the cessation of renewable energy projects, housing subsidies except for urban renovation, as well as a training program for the least qualified job seekers.

“Unprecedented austerity”

If aid of 500,000 euros, released for Mayotte, was welcomed, the battle of figures dominated the debates. “It’s a budget of unprecedented austerity”denounced Céline Malisé (PCF), stressing that the finance bill did not impose “only a drop of 161 million euros” in 2025. The communist opposition, which regularly denounces “mismanagement” of the executive, warns of a cut of 74 million euros in commitments to the construction of new housing, of the drop in investments in making transport accessible as well as the end of aid for returning to work. “The Region is not abandoning housing, it is suspending new commitments but honoring commitments already made”Geoffroy Didier, spokesperson for the majority, told AFP.

The socialists for their part denounced “a sham sanctuarization of investments in high schools”while environmentalists criticized priorities “focused on non-mandatory skills such as safety”. “The budget for high schools is protected. You mention a significant drop in investments which I do not find in the 2025 draft budget”retorted James Chéron, vice-president in charge of high schools, recalling that the social pricing of canteens was maintained for the most modest. The opposition also denounces a cut of 30 million euros in social transport pricing as well as savings in culture, a shared competence of the region, which “will directly affect the operation of structuring cultural facilities”.