LA TRIBUNE SUNDAY – Examination of the budget will resume on Tuesday in the Assembly, after a first week of discussions at the end of which it could not be adopted. Are you optimistic about the progress of the debates?
DAVID AMIEL – Nothing has changed since I denounced a “Frankenstein” budget following the examination by the Finance Committee of the National Assembly. It is the fruit of circumstantial complicity between the National Rally and the New Popular Front, without any internal coherence. It would shatter tax records and drag the country into crisis. Not to mention the irresponsible reduction in the French contribution to the European Union budget or the elimination of the country's electricity security supply mechanism. We have to pull ourselves together.
Michel Barnier: “We must all make an effort”
Do you think that the government is making enough concessions to the Ensemble pour la République group?
If we support the government in its effort to reduce deficits, that does not prevent us from defending our ideas, financed to the nearest euro. Increasing the burden on work, as the government has chosen to do, would result in an increase in unemployment. Employment should never be an adjustment variable. We are defending an alternative reform to allow salary progression. I tabled an amendment, inspired by the Bozio and Wasmer report, to strengthen the reduction in charges between 1.2 and 1.9 times the minimum wage in order to prevent employees from being stuck for life at this level, while reducing other reductions, particularly for higher salaries, where they are less effective. Ultimately, this would represent between 3 and 5 billion euros in released salaries, without increasing the overall cost of labor. We expect the government to respond favorably to this approach.
Does Michel Barnier's economic policy mark a break with that of Emmanuel Macron?
Since 2017, President Macron has launched a historic dynamic of lower unemployment, reindustrialization and ecological planning. But, for several weeks, these essential subjects for the future have disappeared from the debate and we can see no further than the next three months. Budgetary adjustment cannot be done to the detriment of a long-term strategic ambition. Alongside their budgetary austerity plan, the ruling British Labor Party announced strong investment measures. Let's be careful not to drop out! Today, some are proposing the elimination of a public holiday. Personally, even if I prefer structural reforms, I answer “Why not?” “, provided that it is used to finance essential investments for the environment, schools and innovation.
Dismissal of Emmanuel Macron: the LFI proposal buried
The weak mobilization of deputies from the common core was very noted during the debates. How do you explain it?
The Ensemble pour la République group was the most mobilized of the common base. But, arithmetically, when NFP and RN vote together, they are in the majority. This unfortunately only leads to one thing: the National Rally, despite its daily reversals, benefits from the appalling spectacle of the last few weeks. We are experiencing democratic disruption. This Assembly, which should have been one of compromise, is in fact more caricatured than the previous one. The government, which should have been a government of republican unity, has a narrow base and does not have a coalition program, known in advance, which would include the reforms essential for the country. We could have taken inspiration from 1945 or 1958. We are in fact closer to the worst moments of the Fourth Republic. But, this time, in ambush, it is the extreme right, not Gaullism!
We need a collective awakening. We could have reached a historic compromise with the socialists around tax justice. The central block had made new openings. I myself had put forward the idea of a “tax net” to fight against the abusive optimization of the richest, taken up in part by the government. Unfortunately, the socialists have once again chosen to align themselves with La France insoumise and their 50 billion tax increases. Even in 1981, François Mitterrand had increased taxes three times less in relation to GDP! Social democracy is the alliance of justice and seriousness. Where is she?
