Public finances: after the deputies, Bruno Le Maire asks the senators for savings avenues

The Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire indicated on Tuesday that he wanted to reach out to all senators to work with the government to restore public finances, the day after a similar appeal to deputies. “I extend my hand to all the senators who have the desire, like us, to return below the 3% public deficit in 2027 and to maintain our debt,” declared Bruno Le Maire during a debate on the stability program and the orientation of public finances. “The more of us there are to support this objective – and I mean this objective, we can debate the means – the more France will gain in credibility and power,” he added.

With the health and inflationary crises now “behind us”, “we must return to the path of restoring public finances, as we did in 2017, 2018 and 2019”, he insisted. Bruno Le Maire described as “credible” the three pillars on which the government roadmap is based: growth and full employment, structural reforms such as unemployment insurance, and reductions in public spending. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, parliamentarians are invited to propose concrete avenues for savings, particularly in the context of the development of the 2025 budget, as was already the case at the end of March in Bercy.

Bruno Le Maire had already declared on Monday, in front of the deputies, that he wanted to go beyond "political quarrels" and "reach out to all opposition parliamentarians who wanted to restore public finances", during a budgetary orientation debate without vote in the National Assembly. Not without having used irony towards them: “Never have I seen so many parliamentarians concerned about the public debt,” he said, brandishing a thick pile of documents, “the 2,500 letters, all gone confused, demanding from (its) part more public spending.

As in the Assembly, where LFI and the RN are threatening a motion of censure by the end of May for lack of an amending budget presented before the European elections at the beginning of June, the government has been the subject of strong criticism from the 'opposition. “You say I'm reaching out, but we reached out to you last December. Why didn't you take it when the 7 billion euros in savings were offered? So an outstretched hand must go both ways,” launched Bruno Retailleau, head of the LR senators. Questioned by AFP, LR MP Véronique Louwagie agreed. Faced with the substantial savings proposed by her party, according to her, “each time, the government has shown casualness like move along, there is nothing to see. I hear Bruno Le Maire's words, now I'm waiting for action.

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