Who is responsible for the huge public deficit projected for 2024? The current Prime Minister and his predecessor may be in the same coalition, but they do not have the same answer. Since his appointment at Matignon, Michel Barnier has focused on the situation “very serious” that he says he has “discovery” which will arrive on September 5, and about the enormous austerity plan he is preparing to rectify the situation in 2025. Gabriel Attal has another reading. In his opinion, the Barnier government bears its share of responsibility. This was explained on Friday, November 8 in the Senate, where he was heard as part of an information mission on the drift of public accounts.
For the former prime minister, now leader of the Macronist deputies, his successor voluntarily chose not to mobilize all available means to stop the slippage of accounts as soon as possible. According to Gabriel Attal, it was possible to maintain the deficit of the State, local communities and Social Security at 5.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2024, provided that strong measures were taken.
“This is what my government would have done if there had not been the dissolution” he said on Friday. Therefore, contrary to forecasts, the deficit would not have decreased. But at least it would have remained at the same level as in 2023. If it finally worsens to 6.1% of GDP, as is now the official target, “This is the government’s choice” Barnier, concluded Matignon’s former tenant. Judged words “very inelegant” by the two senators who presided over the hearing, Claude Raynal (Socialist Party, Haute-Garonne) and Jean-François Husson (Les Républicains, Meurthe-et-Moselle).
“We did our best”
For months now, the drift of public accounts has been at the center of a political debate that is becoming a trial of the successive Macronist governments and, in particular, of Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy for seven years, as well as to his last minister. of the budget, Thomas Cazenave. How, after an initial slide in 2023, could the public deficit get so worse in 2024, reaching 6.1% of GDP instead of the 4.4% initially planned, a shift of around €50 billion? Before the parliamentarians, Gabriel Attal and his ministers denied any guilt or concealment. They involve a “sudden worsening” of the situation, a ” collapse “ unexpected tax revenues, two shocks to which they claim to have reacted quickly.
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