The National Assembly was divided on Tuesday August 2 on the budgetary stability program (PSTAB) 2022-2027 soon to be sent to the European Commission, ambitious promises of the government of “control of public finances” pounded by opposition.
A discussion will take place on the same subject on Wednesday in the Senate, without a vote, as at the Palais Bourbon.
Gradually reduce public spending
The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, defended this Tuesday a phase of « normalisation » expenses, after “the parenthesis of whatever it costs”.
In this roadmap intended for the European Commission a few months late, the executive promises to significantly reduce the rate of increase in public expenditure in volume to 0.6% per year on average over the five-year period, a first for twenty years. It aims for a return of the public deficit below the 3% mark “by 2027”.
“Three major reforms” in sight
The government plans an effort by the State and communities but an increase in Social Security spending to finance hospital support.
Emphasizing employment, the Minister described “three great reforms” : unemployment insurance, the RSA with the transformation of Pôle emploi into “France Travail”, and the continuation of apprenticeship. Before mentioning later a “structural reform” retirements.
The hemicycle torn by the oppositions
The deputy RN Philippe Lottiaux saw in this text a “requiem for the French economy” from “Mozart of finance” Emmanuel Macron, with reforms “imprecise and uncertain”.
The LR right blamed the government “an equation without the methods of calculation” : “our finances are on the rise but you are throwing oil on the fire instead of pulling out the fire hose” with a drop in expenses, criticized Véronique Louwagie.
The left has denounced, unlike the “dark cuts”of ” austerity “. “Between 3% and 3 degrees, we will have to choose”warned the Insoumise Alma Dufour, calling for investments against global warming.
For the socialist Philippe Brun, this program is a “dialogue of accountants” with Brussels, a “outdated process” with some “criteria that no one respects anymore”.
The majority, on the other hand, hailed a line of “courageous conduct” (Felicie Gerard, Horizons).
“Part of the left has changed in Europe, it gives the impression of wanting to leave it. For us, Europe is not a self-service”but one « engagement »launched the president of the LREM group at the Assembly, Aurore Bergé.
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