According to figures from the former general budget rapporteur, the economic program would lead to 106 billion euros in additional spending and the deficit would return to its current level of 5.1% at best in 2026.
The economic program of the New Popular Front for the legislative elections, accused by its adversaries of being expensive, is estimated at 106 billion euros in spending over three years, in figures carried out on Tuesday by the socialist Valérie Rabault, former vice-president of the Assembly. national, however contested by La France insoumise.
“This program of the Popular Front (NFP) represents, according to my calculation, 106 billion euros of new spending over the period 2024-2027,” indicated the former general rapporteur of the Budget in an interview with the newspaper Les Echos, posted online on Tuesday .
“The main items are made up of measures to revive growth,” she continued, citing salaries (23 billion euros with the increase in the index point of civil servants, that of the remuneration of apprentices and trainees). The construction of 200,000 public housing units per year should cost 10 billion and the autonomy guarantee, which supplements the income of households below the poverty line, 5 billion, she added.
“Our recovery must boost growth,” continued Valérie Rabault, calculating that it could, thanks to this program, rise to “3% in 2025, 3% in 2026” and “2% around 2029”, where France should painfully approach 1% this year.
On the revenue side, this program counts on the taxation of superprofits and a return of the wealth tax “with a greater weight than before 2017”, also said Ms. Rabault, while saying she was unfavorable to taxing labor. .
A deficit of 3.6%… in 2029
“Based on these assumptions, our budgetary trajectory projects a deficit of 5.7% of GDP this year [contre 5,1% cette année]then 5.4% in 2025 and 5.1% in 2026 before landing at 3.6% in 2029″, she affirms, on the eve of the probable opening by the European Commission of a procedure disciplinary action for excessive deficit against France and several other countries.
“Of course, we are extending the deadlines for the restoration of public accounts. But you cannot accuse me, nor François Hollande (legislative candidate in Corrèze, Editor’s note) of not being vigilant about the state of finances We must understand that the urgency is to revive the French economy,” she said.
In a press release, France Insoumise clarified on Tuesday that “this costing does not correspond to the costing of the program of the New Popular Front”. “Valérie Rabault presents hypotheses for 2 years of mandate, and therefore limits certain measures for a certain time”, estimated the party, referring to a “joint press conference” which will allow “in the coming days” to present detailed year-by-year costing of the program for the entire legislature.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, said on Tuesday that France risked being “put under supervision” by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if the National Rally or the New Popular Front won the legislative elections June 30 and July 7.
A few days earlier, the government, in the middle of the campaign, had estimated the NFP program at 287 billion euros in spending per year.
