The government spokesperson, a member of the former Macronist majority, reacted in particular to Emmanuel Macron’s comments on France Inter, calling for an end to delivering weapons to Israel that could be used against the already bloodless population of Gaza. . “Shame on you,” replied Benyamin Netanyahu. “We cannot accuse the President of the Republic of not being on the side of Israel”estimates Maud Bregeon. “This was the case before October 7 and after October 7, always affirming Israel’s right to defend itself. We did it towards the Israelis, we did it towards vis-à-vis French people of Jewish faith in France, who have been affected by a terrible increase in anti-Semitic acts.”
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“And at the same time, the role of the Head of State, and this is the line that has always been his, is that of de-escalation, of choosing political dialogue, of choosing calls to the ceasefire, as he did again recently with President Biden There are populations, civilians who are massively affected. I believe that this moves many French people. his role when he calls for de-escalation and when he always places himself on the side of diplomacy.”
“An equation of 40 billion in spending efforts, and 20 billion in exceptional contributions”
In France, the other burning question of the moment is that of the 2025 budget: 60 billion euros to be released to achieve a balance, according to the government. “We got here because we went through exceptional crises”recalls Maud Bregeon. “And that in the face of these crises, we have put in exceptional expenditure which must now be regulated. If we do nothing, we will have rates which will continue to increase, a debt burden which will become increasingly important And the Prime Minister’s objective is to avoid a financial crisis and to prevent France from becoming the Greece of 2010 tomorrow. For that, we have a plan: we propose an equation that works. with 40 billion in spending efforts, and 20 billion in exceptional contributions.”
In terms of savings, one of the options is to increase the electricity bill of the French. “We need to gradually move away from the price shield that we put in place during the energy crisis. We drastically reduced taxes on electricity two years ago, to protect the French. The State has gone as far as to cover almost half of people’s electricity bill We increased this tax almost a year ago now, last January, by around twenty euros. today to return to what is in fact a normal pre-crisis level.”
But she assures us: “80% of French people will see their bills drop. I know it seems a little contradictory, but market prices are going down. So the drop in these market prices will in any case more than compensate for the increase in this tax. “
More broadly, “We are going to ask each ministry to make efforts with two red lines, since as the Prime Minister says, he too has red lines. The first is on the sovereign, defense, justice and interior. We must preserve the staff increases that were planned during the programming laws and ensure that this impacts the quality of public service as little as possible. We do not deny the difficulty of the effort: 40 billion. spending, it’s important. It will also require debate in the National Assembly.”
“The French would make us pay extremely dearly for inaction or instability”
On the question of state medical aid, which has returned to the table notably via the new Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, Maud Bregeon explains that the Prime Minister “approaches the subject without ideology”. “It is a health subject and it is a public health subject, so we will base ourselves on the studies which have already been carried out. They say first of all that state medical aid is a useful device that it must be preserved, so there is no reason to come back to it. Now, can we think about what the care package includes today? Is there any care? which today are reimbursed and perhaps should not be? Are there treatments on the contrary which are not reimbursed but which perhaps, given what the situation is? health situation, should be? I believe that we are tackling a subject which is eruptive. But reforming the AME will not respond as such to migration issues.”
More broadly, while dissensions are already appearing between the new government, deprived of a majority, and the old majority, also a minority in the National Assembly, Maud Bregeon believes that “the interest of the country is that this government succeeds, that Michel Barnier succeeds. We know that we are in a complicated situation, with a government which was intended to be as broad as possible, and which includes personalities who do not who do not always agree on everything, who do not have the same political history, who do not have the same political culture, who have sometimes fought each other in the past, sometimes violently. But despite everything, they share a desire to work together. to find ways of compromise I sincerely believe that this is what the French expect of us, and that the French would make us pay extremely dearly for being the cause of inaction or worse, of instability. .”
