In front of the deputies, Gabriel Attal defends his assessment and assumes “unpopular but imperative” savings

The former Prime Minister was questioned on Tuesday by the members of the National Assembly Commission of Inquiry on the drift of public accounts in 2023 and 2024.
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Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Tuesday, February 4, that France’s recovery in public finances had been “At the heart” of his action during his short stay in Matignon in 2024. “I had the feeling of devoting most of the time I spent in Matignon to save money”he developed before the National Assembly commission of inquiry on the drift of public accounts in 2023 and 2024.
“We have taken often unpopular, but imperative measures to lower our expenses and keep our deficits”defended Gabriel Attal. The latter quoted the end of the price shield on electricity, the cancellation by decree of almost 10 billion euros in credits, the doubling of medical deductibles, the reform of unemployment insurance, ultimately suspended, and the Willingness to make 15 billion additional savings in the budget draft for 2025.
The State spent 11 billion euros less in 2024 than in 2023, unheard of in 10 years, according to him, while public spending as a whole, in particular social and those of local authorities, have increased.
The public deficit is expected at around 6% of GDP in 2024, a figure far from the 5.1% targeted in the spring of 2024 after reassessment by the Attal government. In addition to increasing expenses, the former tenant of Matignon awarded this slippage to revenue (corporate tax, income tax and VAT) less than anticipated. He said he was informed in early 2024 of this fuck. “In front of these signals, we decided, with Bruno Le Maire [ministre des Finances]to hide nothing from the situation and to act with force “he said, citing a lowering of the growth forecast, the recovery of the deficit target and the desire to achieve some 20 billion savings.
The government had a “Total awareness (…) of the severity of the situation”assured the current leader of deputies together for the Republic. With Emmanuel Macron, he explains that he had dismissed the possibility of presenting a amending finance bill, defended by Bruno Le Maire, judging that such a text, “Not necessary” To achieve the targeted savings, would also have cluttered the parliamentary calendar.