After seven years of supply-side policy marked by massive fiscal disarmament and revenue losses of around 50 billion euros per year for the State, budgetary slippage has reached an unprecedented level with a public deficit of 6 .1% of GDP in 2024 which places our country in a difficult situation: borrowing rates on the financial markets are now among the highest in the euro zone and continue to rise. The simple cost of interest on the debt represents each year, in this situation, the equivalent of the National Education budget.
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While to deal with this situation, Michel Barnier’s government was considering massive spending cuts of around 40 billion euros, including the elimination of 4,000 teaching positions, we say it very clearly: this It is not up to public services to pay the bill for the mismanagement of Emmanuel Macron’s governments. Neither to the large national public education and health services, which have been attacked in recent years and which are the cornerstone of our social cohesion, nor to other local public services (nurseries, schools, libraries and other cultural places, daily public transport ) largely supported by local finances.
The 5 to 10 billion budget cuts envisaged by the previous government at the expense of communities, in a context of already continuous restriction of their resources by the State, had, rightly, aroused an outcry from left-wing local elected officials. as on the right. These measures would have had a recessive effect, while public investment rests mainly on local authorities and growth is also an essential lever to redress our accounts and finance major public policies.
The socialists assume being interlocutors of the government during this period, to provide France with a budget, to avoid an economic collapse and an even more serious social crisis.
If the government of François Bayrou now wants to avoid censorship and allow the vote on a budget for France, it will have to take into account the demands of the socialists in terms of public services, tax justice, purchasing power and reform pensions. The numerous tax gifts granted by Emmanuel Macron to the wealthiest from the start of his first mandate (abolition of the ISF, end of the progressive taxation of capital with the implementation of the flat tax, elimination of the exit tax, etc.) have contributed for years to creating a hole in tax revenues and increasing inequalities.
While poverty increases and food prices remain high after two years of high inflation not offset by rising wages, dividend distributions have continued to increase significantly in France in 2023 and 2024. In this context , it is certainly not on the middle and working classes that the budgetary effort should weigh nor on the public services which are at the heart of our Republican contract.
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In a country where work is now taxed much more than capital, it is from the side of the highest incomes, the largest assets and large companies that we will have to look for new resources to prepare for the future and finance ecological transition, while reducing inequalities. The socialists assume being interlocutors of the government during this period, to provide France with a budget, to avoid an economic collapse and an even more serious social crisis. On condition of obtaining progress for the French in terms of tax fairness and social justice.
No “servility” or treason, simply a sense of the country’s best interests. Let those who dare to accuse the left responsible for this country of selling itself for a “dish of lentils” say what personal advantages, what positions, the socialists and their partners will recover in this affair: none! On the other hand, we want to rise to the moment, which means doing everything to improve the daily lives of our fellow citizens, to be useful to the country, and not to add to the despair which every day nourishes the breeding ground of the extreme right.
To govern is to choose. The ball is now in the court of the Prime Minister and his government, as well as the “common base” that supports them. It is up to them to show that they have grasped the seriousness of the moment and that they are ready to make the necessary concessions to escape the influence of the National Rally and prevent the country from the risk of a very serious political, economic and social crisis. .
Rémi Féraud, candidate for mayor of Paris and PS senator of Paris
Gabrielle Siry-Houari, economist, member of the national office of the PS and deputy mayor of the 18th centurye
