Emmanuel Macron may call on his ministers to ensure the economy of public finances, the government has multiplied in recent days the announcements to support artisans in difficulty.
Blow hot and cold. If the government takes out the checkbook to support struggling bakers, Emmanuel Macron has called on his ministers to ease off on announcements of new public spending.
The message was very clear this Wednesday morning for the first Council of Ministers of the year, after having urged not “to give in to the professionals of fear”.
Sobriety instruction
“I had spoken of the end of abundance on natural resources, it is also the case on budgetary resources”, advanced the head of state, according to confidences of participants to BFMTV.
“A few days ago, France borrowed above 3%, which had not happened for years,” said the head of state.
A message of sobriety far from politics chosen by Bercy in recent weeks. Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy thus multiplies the devices intended for small and medium-sized enterprises, for some bloodless after the explosion of electricity bills.
Multiplication of support systems
From the price shield to the aid desk, including the staggering of taxes and social security contributions for bakers announced by the Prime Minister, the government is pulling out all the stops to enable craftsmen to get through the explosion of electricity bills without putting the key under the door.
In a deteriorated social context between lasting inflation, explosion of energy prices and the end of the rebate at the pump, the government wants to both avoid bankruptcy filings and major social mobilizations, a few days before the announcement of a high-risk pension reform.
At the risk of overdoing it? The final version of the finance bill for 2023 adopted by the Assembly provides for a deficit close to 165 billion euros against 158 billion announced in September. The public deficit is still expected at 5% of GDP in 2023 and the government’s objective is to bring it below 3% by 2027.
“The race to announce a new expenditure”
This is also one of the reasons put forward by Matignon to justify the pension reform, rejected by 3 out of 4 French people according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV. Elisabeth Borne also called on the ministers to more rigorous management of public funds.
“We must stop the race for the announcement in the media, with a new expense each time. This is no longer possible,” asked the head of government.
Before announcing that a “deep review of the quality of public spending” would be undertaken in 2023. What to see in it a double talk that borders on schizophrenia? No, we assure the government.
“On the one hand, we need to reassure the management of our public finances and on the other, we must support our traders to get through the peak of inflation. We have been on this line for weeks and we are not going to not change it. We assume to do both, “responds a ministerial adviser to BFMTV.com.
“A Leap Forward”
On the executive side, we are also trying to be proactive while returning the ball to the court of the electricity suppliers. After Bruno Le Maire, it was the president’s turn this Thursday morning during the traditional galette des rois at the Élysée Palace to ask energy suppliers to renegotiate the “excessive” contracts of VSEs.
If the request is intended to be symbolic by embodying the voluntarism of the president, it has no legal obligation for these companies. It also has the advantage of costing nothing to public finances while many professions are now mobilizing to obtain the same aid as bakers, like restaurants or dry cleaners.
“There is a headlong rush of demands because everyone has become too used to turning to the State to cover all the risks”, regrets for his part the Renaissance deputy Guillaume Karasbian, Renaissance deputy.
“But any check distributed by the State is in reality that of the taxpayer, therefore of all of us”, still judges the chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee.
“We are not going to reopen a ‘whatever the cost'”
Wanting to reassure the defenders of budgetary rigor, Bruno Le Maire assured Wednesday on France Inter that there was no question of “reopening a” whatever the cost “for all the professions in France and Navarre, because that would not be the right solution”.
Bercy is now heading for “pedagogy” to publicize the aid systems already in place. Renaissance activists are even invited on Saturday to go to their baker’s to explain to them the possible aid by distributing a leaflet to them. A way of wanting to convince without affecting the public purse.
