The Prime Minister recalled the measures taken by her government to reduce France’s debt, following the measures taken to deal with the health crisis and inflation.
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Elisabeth Borne took the floor on Monday, June 19, to close the foundations of public finances. “The sustainability of our debt is imperative, especially since interest rates have risen sharply in recent months”, she said. The Prime Minister wants to restore the accounts to balance after the massive expenditure of the State in the face of the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine, which had the effect of deteriorating public finances.
For that, “there are other paths than austerity or increases taxes”, she said. Elisabeth Borne recalls, for example, that it has asked the ministries to identify ways of generating 5% savings, excluding payroll. The head of the executive has announced that she wants to base her government’s action on three levers: growth, full employment, and the fight against tax and social fraud. An action based on structural reforms, in particular the reform of unemployment insurance and the reform of pensions.
Financing investments other than through debt
The Prime Minister also tried to reassure local elected officials, whose three main associations shunned the foundations of public finances, denouncing the fact of being simple “performers” reforms decided in Paris. “I wish [qu’ils] are associated in a systematic and formal way on the expenses that have an impact on them”she said.
Finally, faced with the challenges of ecological transition, or even artificial intelligence, Elisabeth Borne assured that “major investments” would be necessary, but that these could not be funded “by debt”. The former Minister of Labor thus recalled the need to decarbonize the French economy, while arguing that these investments, although necessary, would not be “not the most profitable in the short and medium term”.