A government amendment provided for a further reduction in sports spending in the 2025 draft budget. Although it was rejected by the Senate, it fueled the anger of the sports movement.
“Promises only bind those who believe them.” The formula attributed to the politician Charles Pasqua could perfectly apply to the sports movement. Remember last September, when, in the wake of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris which were successful beyond expectations, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron decorated our champions.
A little less than a year ago, during his wishes to the future players in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Head of State promised that “the means (committed to French sport) will be maintained until the end of this five-year term with precisely the 2030 games in perspective (which will be organized in the French Alps. ” But the economic crisis has passed through there. Budgets must be reduced, spending and French sport must be curbed. actually the costs.
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Already a big blow
“The 2025 finance bill already provided for a reduction of more than 100 million euros in the budget of the Ministry of Sports (excluding exceptional credits linked to the Games), dealing a hard blow to a budget which is already struggling to reach one billion euros. “euros and already represented barely 0.2% of the state budget”, deplores the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) in a press release. A budget reduced to nothing with a new amendment tabled by the government “which reduces a budget which is becoming marginal by an additional 34 million euros”, adds the same source.
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Two athletes, and not the least, immediately thundered on social networks. Five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner noted that “as soon as the games are over, the budget for sport drops by 33%! Let's not let this flame go out, it is essential for the future! » Swimmer Léon Marchand greeted the news with an emoticon full of irony: applause. We remember that last November, it was with a clown emoji that he reacted to the announcement of the partial abandonment of the system around two hours of additional sport at college per week – another broken promise.
-The Senate rejected the amendment
The only good news for the sports community lies in the reaction of French senators who were massively opposed to the provision in question, even the right-wing majority in the upper house, yet always attentive to budgetary restrictions in a context of spiraling deficit. “Sport must not be the great sacrifice of budgetary and accounting causes,” launched the general budget rapporteur Jean-François Husson (LR).
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For her part, the new Minister of Sports Marie Barsacq assured that she would “fight so that the legacy (of the Olympics) is not sacrificed” – this is good, it was her mission within the Olympic committee. For senators, the Sports budget must be increased by 80 million euros by eliminating the Universal National Service (SNU), which the High Assembly considers unnecessary and expensive.
