The debate on the 2025 budget begins on Wednesday, October 16 in the National Assembly. For Charles de Courson, centrist deputy for Marne, member of the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories group and general rapporteur of the budget, the copy proposed by the Government does not completely correspond to reality. And the project has no chance of being voted on as it is.
You have just analyzed the draft budget for 2025. Does it seem sincere to you?
The Prime Minister had the courage to tell the French the truth: the budget situation is “very serious.” He is the first to recognize it, after seven years during which the Macronists mismanaged public finances. However, the presentation made by the government does not fully correspond to reality.
In what sense is it not completely fulfilled?
First, the growth hypothesis contained in this budget is not solid. The government is counting on 1.1% growth, excluding inflation, in 2025, acting as if the austerity measures it is planning will have little or no impact on the economy. However, the Barnier plan risks having a strong depressive effect on the economy and growth will probably be limited to 0.6% or 0.7%, according to the Higher Council of Public Finances. This will have a negative effect on expected revenue. This is my big concern.
Does the content of the project seem faithful to the advertisements?
Not at all. The Government assures that it will make an effort of 60,000 million euros, divided between spending cuts of just over 40,000 million euros and tax increases of 20,000 million. However, he classified among the cost reduction measures that actually refer to increases in income, totaling 10 billion euros. If we put these measures back in the column where they should be, we will arrive at a 50% tax increase and a 50% spending effort. And again, all of this is calculated against a hypothetical “trend scenario.” Comparing the budget from one year to the next, as we usually do, we arrive at a reduction of one third of spending and an increase of two thirds of mandatory contributions. Quite the opposite of what the government says.
Are there too many taxes in this budget?
When Michel Barnier asked me to be Budget Minister, I told him that some limited measures of fiscal justice were needed, but that the main thing was to reduce spending. In Europe we are gold medalists in mandatory contributions, competing with Denmark, with the difference that its budget is balanced. This is the central problem. However, spending in this budget is still too high. We cannot talk about austerity. Above all, there are the tax increases, the exact size of which remains questionable.
You have 51.62% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
