“Revenues have decreased, that is the main problem,” says Eric Coquerel on the issue of the public deficit
According to the chairman of the National Assembly’s finance committee, Eric Coquerel (La France insoumise), who received the budget documents sent to MPs on Monday by Bercy, the public deficit could reach 5.6% of GDP this year instead of the 5.1% expected, and would widen to 6.2% of GDP in 2025 – instead of 4.1% – if 60 billion euros were not saved. Even with 30 billion euros saved, the public deficit would still stagnate at 5.2% of GDP next year, Coquerel read out.
The public deficit is the balance of the accounts of the State, social security and local authorities.
“Income has decreased, that is the main problem”Coquerel analyzed on Tuesday on BFM Business. “From there there are two policies”continued: taxes “The capital income of the richest” and the increase in wages, “so that more contributions arrive” into the coffers of the State and Social Security.
According “a first analysis” by Eric Coquerel, “Only the budgets dedicated to defence and security will increase faster than inflation” next year, he explained in a press release. Instead, “The most affected policies should be official development aid (-18% without taking inflation into account), sport (-11%), agriculture (-6%), foreign affairs (-4%), ecology (-1%) and health (-0.8%)”. Work (+1%) and national education (+0.5%) “It will also be affected by a reduction in resources”since the expected increase in credits is lower than the expected inflation of around 2% next year.
According to Coquerel, taking into account inflation and the natural end of certain programs, this budget project – which the next executive will be able to modify as it wishes, but within very tight deadlines – “This represents a reduction of 15 billion euros compared to the finance law adopted in 2024.” This would add up to 5 billion in savings on the social security funding bill, or 20 billion in total.
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