Published on 10/13/2024 9:11 p.m.
Video length: 2 min
Public debt: is it out of control? Public debt: is it out of control? (France 2)
The budget established by Michel Barnier for 2025 involves savings to be made. Prime Minister targets ‘magic money’ spent too long. France has seen its public debt explode in recent years, has it become out of control?
“I am at the head of a state which is in a situation of financial bankruptcy”declared François Fillon, then Prime Minister of Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2007. Since then, the French debt has only gotten worse. In 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy promised a fiscal shock but the subprime crisis will thwart his plans. 1,500 billion euros of debt in 2008, unheard of at the time. France’s rating is downgraded on the financial markets.
In 2012, François Hollande, just elected president, made a commitment: “That there is not one euro more at the end of my five-year term compared to the beginning in terms of debt”. He manages to reduce the public deficit but the debt continues to grow: more than 2,000 billion euros in 2017. Emmanuel Macron then wants to embody renewal but the accumulation of several events will be very expensive with 17 billion euros for the yellow vests or even 140 billion euros for the Covid crisis. In his budget planned for 2025, Michel Barnier foresees 60 billion euros in savings but it is a budgetary path of the cross which is expected against a backdrop of political instability.
Watch the entire report in the video above
