LA economic situation in France is comparable to a “boat whose hull has been pierced and which has been full of water for fifty years,” François Bayrou told journalists from Franceinfo, LCI, BFMTV and CNEWS on Sunday. The figure of 44 billion euros in savings to bring the debt to 3 % of GDP in 2029 is not a “taboo”, said the Prime Minister who came to defend his budgetary plan live, but “the order of magnitude that we must follow” to ensure that the debt becomes “every day more bearable”.
“The fault of everyone”
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But how could this debt have increased by almost 1,000 billion since the arrival of Macron in power in 2017, to establish itself today at almost 3.345 billion today? Pressed on the question, François Bayrou considered that it was “the fault of everyone”, pointing to the “whatever it costs” covid and the explosion of energy costs in the context of the war in Ukraine, without directly assuming its responsibility. According to him, it is also the fault of the oppositions, which, “[tes]without exception, demanded that we do more. [Elles] went up to the gallery to say ‘it is not enough’, it is not enough, “castigated the Prime Minister.
Read too Why must you follow François Bayrou (despite everything)However, all oppositions do not share, according to him, the same observation as to the urgency of a reduction in expenses, while negotiations are scheduled for next week with the parties who will want to go there. “The Socialist Party says ‘We want to bring down this government’. […] The PS proposals are the most distant from all those made on the political field. What the PS offers is not to slow down the expense, but to create it, with 32 billion taxes on businesses, “reproached the Prime Minister, arguing that this blindness risks preventing any compromise:” negotiating only makes sense if we agree on the report, the diagnosis “.
Work more, win less?
While eight out of ten French people say they are opposed to the abolition of two holidays, one of the most criticized measures of his budgetary plan, François Bayrou refused to speak of “free work”. “This measure is not a measure like the others: these are more working days for the country, which is arrested and goes to activity. It is not measured in minutes of work, it is the richness created, “he said. These two unshakes would make it possible to glean 4 billion euros over one year, or 10 % of the total amount of the savings provided by the 2026 budget plan.
The Prime Minister says he is however “open to discussion, on the imperative condition that we consider that we cannot do nothing”. Other equally sensitive initiatives have also been studied by François Bayrou: “I had envisaged other measures, for example going from 35 to 36 hours of work per week, and I did not do it. »»
“I never said that boomers had to target”
Widely criticized for having declared, Wednesday August 27 on TF1, that the debt had been increased for “the comfort of certain political parties and boomers”, François Bayrou explained himself on his words, in particular concerning the generation of which he himself is a part. “Those who were born in 1945 and 1955 are the children of Baby-Boom. When we were 20 years old, France was zero debt and magnificent growth. […] We easily found work. We did not have this load of the debt on the back. I never said that you had to target boomers, I said that this generation should be with me to lower the debt of the youngest. It is a generation that feels sacrificed, ”insisted the Prime Minister. “Are we going to brake or increase the expense?” Money, we don’t have it, we take it every year, and on whom? On the back of the youngest. Never would a family do that. ”
This sequence on generations was also an opportunity for him to return to the possible deletion of the automatic reduction of 10 % from which retirees benefit from, to replace it with a flat -rate reduction of 2000 euros. The allowance should benefit the most modest, “maintain those that are average”, and ask for “a little effort of the order of 200 euros per year for those who are on the ceiling”, or about 18 euros per month. “It is an effort, I do not say the opposite, but for those who are 4,000 euros in pensions,” justified François Bayrou. “What bothers me is not that there are rich is that there are poor,” he concluded.
On immigration, reinforced controls
Asked about immigration, a subject addressed in a missive recently sent to the Prime Minister by the National Rally, François Bayrou refused “that the situation of the country is presented as the consequence of the presence of immigrants”. “I agree that we are looking at if there are advantages for foreigners that the French would not take advantage of, because it would not be fair. But I do not agree to make immigration the manager of immigration, “said the Prime Minister, insisting on the need to strengthen control of entries on the territory and better execution of OQTF (obligation to leave French territory).
Another subject dear to the national rally, on which the Prime Minister wanted to justify himself during his plea: the contribution of France – one of the main donors – to the budget of the European Union. If it amounted to nearly 27 billion euros in 2023, France harvested the profits, explained François Bayrou: “27 billion contribution paid, these are 32 billion” received, through aid like those of the common agricultural policy (CAP) or aid in the regions.
Faced with the dead end, the inevitable vote of trust
At the end of the interview, the Prime Minister was faced to explain his decision to convene, on September 8, a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, to which his government, by the law of mathematics, is unlikely to respond. François Bayrou again defended the need for a “minimum agreement” so as not to be, like the government of his predecessor Michel Barnier, in a complete blocking situation.
“If I do not have the minimal consent of the French and those who represent them, there is no courageous policy possible. You have to retreat on each measure, and afterwards, you find yourself censored. There is worse for me. If there is not this minimum agreement, this agreement on the diagnosis, then the situation is presented as ‘the power against the French’, ‘the top against the bottom’, while I fought all my life for the French are recognized, “said the Prime Minister.
Asked about a possible dissolution, he replied that this prerogative was the President of the Republic. While arguing that, in the current state of things, “you may dissolve, you will find the same divisions, the same incapacity for action”, targeting in particular the “hatred” PS-LFI, the latter fueling the “chaos”. A fervent defender of the proportional, the Prime Minister concluded his speaking by castigating the majority ballot, a political “guillotine” partly responsible, according to him, of the blocking state. “If we were reasonable, we would change the electoral rule, because proportional everywhere means political agreements. »»
The reactions of the oppositions to this interview were not long in coming: “painful to look at”, for the chief of the Marine Mower environmentalists; “Pathetic and twilight”, according to the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure; “Radioactive”, according to the various right mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard … For the Prime Minister and his government, the fall of September 8 is dangerously closer.
