Reconnecting with local authorities to encourage them to rectify their accounts. This will be one of the first tasks of the tenant of Bercy chosen by the new head of government appointed on Thursday 5 September, Michel Barnier. A delicate mission, since in recent days the dialogue between the resigning Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, and the representatives of the municipalities, departments, regions, etc., has turned bitter.
By pointing to communities as the main culprits of the new diversion of public finances, Bercy has drawn an avalanche of criticism from stakeholders. The ministry has not given up, however. On Thursday, its officials urged local elected officials to “get out of denial” and act to contribute to the effort to control public spending. “The deficit of local authorities could reach more than 20 billion euros in 2024, a historic level that has not been reached for more than twenty-five years”says Bercy. Gold “The recovery of public finances must be based on shared efforts by all: the State, social security and local authorities, which represent just over 20% of public spending.”
It all began on Monday 2 September, when Bruno Le Maire and his resigned minister responsible for public accounts, Thomas Cazenave, finally sent parliamentarians a series of financial documents that they had been demanding for weeks. Among them, a Treasury note dated 17 July mentions a clear deterioration in public accounts. Instead of starting to decline, as Emmanuel Macron promised, France’s public deficit risks increasing even further, reaching 5.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024, the Treasury warns. The prospect of returning to less than 3% in 2027 now seems illusory.
The Treasury cites several factors to explain this trend, including a deterioration in the economic situation and the lack of concrete implementation of the main savings measures announced by the State. More incidentally, the Treasury cites a problem on the part of local authorities: they represent 5.4 billion euros of an overall deficit of 14.7 billion euros compared to the objectives.
“False statements”
Curiously, however, the accompanying letter signed on 2 September by Bruno Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave gives completely different figures. “The main risk is related to an extremely rapid increase in local authority spending”The two resigned ministers write: she “It could by itself degrade the 2024 accounts by 16 billion euros.”
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