The absence of a holder of the housing portfolio reveals many aspects of contemporary France: first, it shows how much liberals and interventionists are in agreement on a single point: they need a minister (we will read Philippe Pelletier’s “Point de vue” on this subject). All the professionals, like the analysts, even those who are clamoring for less government have communicated their frustration, even their anger at the statement of the new government team.
Logically, the supporters of strong public action in this matter have intoned the same lament. It is therefore likely that the post-legislative reshuffle will bring up a delegate minister or a secretary of state assigned to Housing and assigned to a rallying of the majority coming out of the ballot box (if this is the case).
But this absence is above all the sign of a phenomenon that we have already mentioned (we also find it in our documentary series of podcasts “My life as Minister of Housing”): when the Head of State, or at any the least, the Prime Minister (who, at the start of her career in Lionel Jospin’s cabinet had housing in her remit — but it was Serge Contat at the time who specifically followed housing issues —), does not are not interested in the subject, it is relegated to technical questions… which politicians neglect. And this lack of interest is immediately reflected in budgetary consequences: Bercy benefits from it as at the start of the previous five-year term. It is therefore not impossible that we are experiencing a scenario of the same type as the forced reduction in APL five years ago; this time, it is the freezing of rents that is looming on the horizon. No one is unaware of the devastating effects, in the long term, of such a measure. But it is one of the rare provisions which does not cost anything – in appearance and at the beginning – to the state budget, which, even in times of “whatever the cost” is delightfully appreciated by the great treasurer. Let us add that this blockage is popular (there are many more tenants than landlords): it is therefore not impossible that Amélie de Montchalin (who ended up claiming this subject among her attributions) or better, her deputy minister has to defend, tomorrow, this measure which should also achieve the quasi-unanimity of the actors against it…
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