“Alter in contact as directly as possible”: in the Hérault on Tuesday, the ministers Gabriel Attal and Stanislas Guerini took advantage of the launch of a national campaign intended to consult the French on the use of taxes to try to renew the dialogue with them , after tensions over the pension reform.
In this unusually gray mid-afternoon on the port of La Grande-Motte, a small crowd formed around the Ministers of Public Accounts and the Civil Service.
“You didn’t say you were coming!” Says Jacques Mestre, a restaurant owner on the seafront.
“It’s a surprise!” Gabriel Attal replies with a smile between two selfies and an exchange with a young crab fisherman with his landing net. “I want to get in touch as directly as possible, people can come and question us,” insists the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts.
“Here, exchanges are free, people are not handpicked”, supports Stanislas Guerini.
A refrain hammered out throughout the day by the two ministers and their teams, while the trips of the government and the President of the Republic are currently enamelled, and sometimes disrupted, by concerts of pans of French people opposed to the recent reform of the retreats.
At the end of the day, the ministers were also welcomed by around thirty activists from Solidaires Finances publiques and the departmental CGT in the small town of Mauguio, to cries of “You are gravediggers” or “We will go to the withdrawal” (of the pension reform, editor’s note).
At La Grande-Motte, where Stanislas Guerini and Gabriel Attal strolled for more than an hour from the hairdresser to the bakery via the Maison France Services, the welcome is mostly cordial. “Good luck to you, times are tough,” encourages an elderly passer-by in front of a beach goods store.
“Worry”
Loïc Valverde’s tone is much less friendly. Unionized at Solidaires Finances publiques, he was waiting firmly for the ministers at the Maison France Services in Castelnau-le-Lez, initially planned for the trip before the executive chose to visit that of La Grande-Motte.
“If you could increase the purchasing power of civil servants a little, that would be good”, launches this tax agent from Gard. “And a small detail, if you could withdraw the pension reform …”, he adds with a touch of irony.
In 2022, the government granted the largest general increase (+3.5%) for more than 30 years to public officials, replies Stanislas Guerini, the Minister of the Public Service.
“You increase” wages, but “not enough” in a context where inflation is also returning to levels not seen in more than thirty years (+5.7% over one year in March), retorts Loïc Valverde.
Salaries, pension reform: “there is a concern of many French people”, recognizes Gabriel Attal. Hence the major consultation launched on Tuesday by the executive to try to re-establish a link with the French, asking them how they want their taxes to be used.
In addition to an online questionnaire sent to the 40 million tax households, “there will be public meetings in all the departments by the summer”, so as to feed the government’s draft budget for 2024, has indicated Gabriel Attal by introducing the first of these public meetings, in Mauguio.
Faced with around forty citizens invited by the Renaissance deputy from Hérault Patrick Vignal, Gabriel Attal and Stanislas Guerini above all defended the government’s fiscal balance sheet – “50 billion tax cuts” during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term – and presented some projects: public service attractiveness measures, anti-fraud plan…
After about forty minutes, the exchanges end around a drink and some salted biscuits. On the other side of the street, the demonstrators are less numerous but we still hear “Macron resignation”.
26/04/2023 09:09:31 – La Grande-Motte (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
2023-04-26 07:36:00
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