With the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9, an unprecedented phase of simple management of current affairs has begun in the state services. In many areas, decisions regarding budgetary options or political direction are on hold for an unknown period of time.
- The housing crisis is getting worse
While the difficulties of the French in finding housing continue to increase, the reforms initiated to try to rationalize the real estate market and access to rentals have been paralyzed. According to the economic report published this summer by French notaries, the volume of sales of old homes “It could fall below the 750,000 mark by the end of the summer”, while it reached a peak of more than 1.2 million transactions in the fall of 2021. The new housing market shows a 36% drop in one year. A perceptible air hole in the bankruptcies of companies in the sector.
Faced with this crisis, the Attal government launched a bill “to develop the supply of affordable housing”, which was intended to promote intermediate housing and speed up construction. The text was supposed to have been debated in the Senate in mid-June. Its discussion was interrupted by the dissolution. Likewise, the cross-party (Renaissance-Socialist Party) bill reinforcing the regulation of Airbnb-type tourist accommodation, approved by both chambers of Parliament, did not have time to be examined by the joint committee.
- The hospital in pain, priority in health
Closure of emergency services, increased waiting times… The tensions in the hospital, which are now being repeated in the summer, illustrate the crisis of the health system. Beyond structural reforms, the budgetary question should very quickly prevail over the future government. “The hospital budget is the top priority”, argues Arnaud Robinet, president of the French Federation of Hospitals, who mentions “a very degraded financial situation, with 1.7 billion [d’euros] deficit”.
Uncertainty prevails as the draft law on the financing of Social Security is still pending, which sets in particular the national target for spending on health insurance, i.e. the resources allocated to hospitals and community medicine.
Another issue: the increased involvement of clinics in permanent care (evenings, nights, weekends), enshrined in the Valletoux law of December 2023, is still awaiting its implementing decree. Other pending issues are the reform of the nursing profession and the plan promised by the government in the autumn to combat violence against caregivers.
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