“At the request of the Prime Minister, 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 of Public Accounts, and myself »assures this Sunday, December 29, 2024, the new Minister of the Economy Éric Lombard, in an interview with La Tribune Sunday.
He will contact everyone ” from (this Sunday) 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 RN from the republican arc, to the great irritation of Marine Le Pen.
“We have to find compromises, it’s essential”
No precedence displayed either: “The order of passage will depend on their availability and the configuration will be the one they want”according to 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 Prime Minister François Bayrou, he assures, “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”. While the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure, who does not rule out censoring the Bayrou government, nevertheless recognized Tuesday on BFMTV that Eric Lombard was “a man of the left” et “a friend”the new minister evaded: “I will dialogue with everyone and I will have the same speech with all elected officials. Some may be more committed, others more reluctant. We'll see. » And to add: “We have to find compromises, it’s essential. »
Possible “very limited” tax increases
He counts “to arrange” the finance bill prepared by the Barnier government, and left pending during the parliamentary shuttle by the censorship of December 4. The minister believes that possible tax increases will have to be “very limited” and that it will be necessary “additional savings”.
The deficit would be included in the text at “a little above 5%” you PIB, “in order to protect growth”. Before concessions to oppositions which did not avoid censorship, Michel Barnier announced the intention of reducing a public deficit of 6.1% of GDP this year, which earned France a procedure for excessive deficit in Brussels, to 5 % next year.
No new taxable persons due to the special law
Eric Lombard also dismisses 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 continue: it does not allow for the traditional indexation of the scale of this tax to inflation.
“We will have a budget which will include an indexation of the scalea coupé court Eric Lombard. French people who do not pay income taxes today will not pay any tomorrow. »
“Feed to grind” on pensions
On pensions, he “issues a condition” to a future adjustment of the law: discussions “must not increase the old age insurance deficit”. There is “grit to grind within this constraint”according to him.
The minister hopes that “the construction of a credible budget will be a response to the concern (of the) markets » on French public finances. He finally judges “very serious” the threat of customs barriers agitated by Donald Trump. “We must prepare for a very vigorous response”more “the European Union has the necessary weapons”he assures.
