More than a month and a half after the start of the examination of the 2025 finance bill, the question of savings remains largely absent from the debate. If, during the discussions in the Assembly, the appearance of new taxes or duties (thirteen in total!) was there, the hunt for spent public money remains more than measured.
Remove certain state operators and reduce the payroll more generally. Estimated savings: 3 billion euros
“There are a number of state agencies or structures that need to be abolished. The Sports Agency, for example, whose missions could be entrusted to the Ministry of Sports (12 million operating euros saved), suggests Senator LR of Aisne. Eliminate the High Commission for Planning[dont le gouvernement a annoncé la fusion avec France Stratégie, NDLR]: these are 2 million operating euros saved. I also propose to clean up the consultation committees (known as “Théodule”), the total cost of which is 22 million euros. More generally, we need to think about the payroll of these state operators. There are 470,000 agents at a cost of 80 billion euros (it was 50 billion in 2012, an increase three times faster than inflation). Ifrap [un think-tank libéral, NDLR] considers that we could operate normally with 400,000 agents, which would enable savings of 3 billion euros. If these organizations carry out one-off missions, as was the case with the National Sports Agency for the Olympic Games, we can go through companies with a temporary contract. But we keep them and they are added…”
Agnès Evren (Les Républicains group)
Remove subsidies from associations that do not respect the values of the Republic. Estimated savings: 500 million euros.
On the job of Agnès Evren, LR senator from Paris, to whom some predict a candidacy for the 2026 municipal elections: “Reserve state subsidies for associations which, in their actions, fully comply with the law and values of the Republic. » “In terms of migration, this would allow us to save 500 million euros in the first year,” says the president of the LR federation in the capital. The State must stop financially supporting structures that oppose its own policy – especially when the latter receives the approval of the French. » According to a CSA survey for CNews, Europe 1 and “Le JDD”, 68% of French people would be in favor of this measure. In the viewfinder of the elected official, the structures “which prevent the application of obligations to leave French territory (OQTF), which saturate the prefectures with appeals, which organize the circumvention of border controls or which mobilize against the creation of detention centers. » “It’s absurd and schizophrenic! she exclaims again. It is also deeply unfair in such a difficult budgetary context. Finally, this measure would allow us to concentrate our efforts on the integration of people in a legal situation and who bring something to France to which I am particularly attached, I who come from immigration, naturalized, with parents who do not did not speak French. It is not a question of cutting humanitarian aid but of being consistent. »
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Hervé Marseille (Centrist Union group)
Non-replacement of one in four civil servants. Estimated savings: 200 million euros.
The leader of the centrist senators, Hervé Marseille, will propose the non-replacement of “one in four civil servants in support functions”, including human resources management, information and communication systems, logistics, real estate, financial management, legal affairs, purchasing and even communication. “The problem is not the police officers or the doctors, but the administration in the ministries and regional health agencies (ARS), where we find a maximum of administrative functions,” explains the man who is also president of the 'UDI. According to the calculations of its teams, at the rate of 3,500 positions not renewed per year in the State civil service – retirements not replaced, in particular – the measure could save the State around 200 million euros. per year. But the centrist intends above all to hit hard by opening the debate around VAT. Objective, to go from 20% to 21% or 22%, which would be less recessionary for the economy and would have the advantage of affecting a very large base, with 6.5 to 13 billion euros of new recipes.
Sylvie Robert (socialist group, environmentalist and Republican)
Eliminate the universal national service. Estimated savings: between 130 and 160 million euros.
“The SNU (a civil service aimed at 15-17 year olds) must ramp up and welcome 850,000 young people in 2027, at an estimated cost of 2 billion euros. Its cost for 2025 should amount to 128 million for 66,000 young people concerned (there were 80,000 in 2024 for 160 million euros)… It is a total failure, and we propose its elimination, continues the PS senator from Ille-et-Vilaine. We never really knew what it was for; there is no clarification on its enlargement by 2027, and the laudable objective of social diversity has not been achieved. Reports show that it is primarily the wealthy categories and young people from military or defense backgrounds who participate in the SNU. It was an experiment with a desire for generalization in 2026, but we now have a few years of hindsight (since 2019). If it is maintained until now, it is only because it is an idea of the President of the Republic… Its deletion, voted on in committee in the Senate a few days ago, will be debated in the hemicycle on December 5 . This is the first time that we will debate the SNU, and that is very good. But I don't know if the government, which wanted to reform the format and content, really wants it to be maintained or not. »
Roger Karoutchi (Les Républicains group)
Reduce development aid. Estimated savings: 2 billion euros
The idea of Senator LR from Hauts-de-Seine and former Secretary of State of Nicolas Sarkozy? Increase development aid, dispersed over several budgetary chapters, from 14 to 12 billion. “It should be remembered that this aid amounted to a total of 8 billion in 2017. It has therefore increased by 75% in seven years, without real parliamentary control. The Senate has been asking, in vain, for two years, for the establishment of a committee to evaluate development aid. Promised by three successive ministers, it still does not exist,” regrets the former Secretary of State responsible for relations with Parliament. For Roger Karoutchi, these expenses, which he estimates are rising sharply, deserve to be reassessed. This is aid distributed to poor countries to improve living conditions (education, access to care, consequences of climate change). “With this measure, the government could therefore reduce the burden in 2025, carry out the evaluation under parliamentary control and advise, for the 2026 budget, whether it is necessary to restore the appropriations or, which seems obvious when we look at all projects, establish priorities and reduce the budgetary burden,” advocates the senator, member of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee.
