Eric Coquerel denounces “historic austerity”

While the government must present its draft budget for 2025 on Thursday, the LFI president of the Finance Committee denounces “historic austerity”, something “never seen before under the Fifth Republic”,

Eric Coquerel, LFI president of the Finance Committee, denounces “historic austerity” of the state budget for 2025, likely to have “absolutely dramatic consequences”, Sunday in the program Le Grand Jury for RTL, M6 , Public Senate and Le Figaro.

To reduce the deficit to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 after an expected increase to 6.1% this year, the government is planning an effort of 60 billion euros, supported by all public administrations. Two thirds of this effort, or 40 billion euros, will come from spending cuts and a little less than a third (20 billion euros) from tax increases.

“This means that there will be 20 billion euros less public spending at the level of ministries, the State, and 15 billion euros at the level of Social Security, that is to say the health of the French”, he explained.

“We think that there are about a few billion” in budget cuts “at the level of” local authorities, while “they are the ones that invest the most in this country, so there will be absolutely dramatic consequences,” he said. added Eric Coquerel.

What will Michel Barnier do?

The debates on the 2025 state budget promise to be heated in the National Assembly, where the government lacks an absolute majority.

“Those who contest the budget are much more numerous in the Assembly” than those who support it, “but on top of that, I think there will be defections,” said Eric Coquerel.

Thursday on FranceInfo, former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin judged the draft budget outlined by Michel Barnier “unacceptable”, and warned that he himself would not vote for a tax increase.

“The least we can say is that it’s a pretty strong statement,” responded Eric Coquerel on Sunday, for whom “this government will not survive the winter.”

“I think that at the end of the (National Assembly Finance) committee, we will have an NFP-compatible budget.” Then, “what will Michel Barnier do? Will he co-construct by accepting what will come out of the commission? I don’t believe it. Because what will come out would considerably transform the budget of the nation”, added Eric Coquerel, saying he believed in an adoption by 49.3 and a motion of censure. “This is why the government will fall.”