the Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, invites all parties to Bercy, hoping for “compromises”

The Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, announced on Saturday December 28 that he wanted to invite all parties to dialogue at Bercy in the coming days, hoping that “compromises” will be found to promote the adoption of a budget.

“At the request of the Prime Minister [François Bayrou], I will call on the political parties represented in the National Assembly and the Senate, as well as the parliamentary groups, to come and dialogue at the ministry with Amélie de Montchalin, the minister responsible for public accounts, and myself”assures the minister in an interview with La Tribune Sunday.

Eric Lombard will contact everyone ” from [dimanche] matin »judging that “all elected officials are legitimate” and thus seeming to want to avoid recent controversies, such as that caused by his predecessor Antoine Armand who, from his first interview at the end of September, indicated excluding the National Rally from the Republican arc, to the great irritation of Marine Le Pen.

No precedence displayed either: “The order of passage will depend on their availability, and the configuration will be the one they want”assures the minister, whose door “will remain open until January 14, date of the general policy speech” by François Bayrou, but “also afterwards”. “The results of this dialogue” will be presented to the Prime Minister “so that it translates into government proposals”.

The man who was until Monday general director of the Caisse des Dépôts, the leading public financial center, recalls having been, “as such, in permanent contact with elected officials, local or national”. “I will dialogue with everyone and I will have the same speech with everyone. Some may be more committed, others more reluctant. We will see”. “We have to find compromises, it’s essential”he added.

Bring the public deficit slightly above 5% of GDP

The minister believes that possible tax increases will have to be “very limited”and that it will be necessary “additional savings”. The budget deficit would be included in the text “a little above 5%” of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), “in order to protect growth”.

Before making concessions to the opposition which did not avoid censorship, Michel Barnier stated the intention of reducing the public deficit to 6.1% of GDP this year – which earned France a procedure for excessive deficit in Brussels –, at 5% next year.

Mr. Lombard also removed the risk of a possible increase in the number of people subject to income tax next year, if the special law which will allow the strict functioning of the State at the start of the year were to persist – it does not allow the traditional indexation of the scale of this tax to inflation to be practiced. “We will have a budget which will include an indexation of the scale, Mr. Lombard cut short the questions. French people who do not pay income taxes today will not pay any tomorrow. »

The minister “issues a condition” moreover to a future adjustment of the law on pensions: discussions “must not increase the old age insurance deficit”. There is “grit to grind within this constraint”according to him. Mr. Lombard hopes that “the construction of a credible budget will be a response to the concern [des] markets » on French public finances.

He finally judges “very serious” the threat of customs barriers raised by the American president-elect, Donald Trump. “We must prepare for a very vigorous response”more “the European Union has the necessary weapons”he assures.