“This government continues to be stuck in a logic contrary to the economic interest of the country and from which our fellow citizens will suffer enormously,” denounces Éric Coquerel

Invited Wednesday on Franceinfo, Eric Coquerel a “austerity policy” of the government which “will have consequences for everyone”.

“This government continues to be stuck in a logic contrary to the economic interest of the country and from which our fellow citizens will suffer enormously”, denounces, Wednesday March 6, on franceinfo Éric Coquerel, LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly. And this, while the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and the Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave defended before the National Assembly their savings plan of 10 billion euros in 2024. They also announced 20 billion euros of additional cuts in 2025.

Franceinfo: What did you learn from the hearing of the two ministers?

Eric Coquerel: This government, in any case the Minister of the Economy, continues to be stuck in a logic contrary to the economic interest of the country and from which our fellow citizens will suffer enormously, since many of the ministries affected are ministries of the future. , those which concern research, higher education, education, ecological transition but also housing, sport, culture… These are services of which many of our fellow citizens will be deprived. Currently, teachers are calling in a very strong movement for more resources in Seine-Saint-Denis: with more than 700 million fewer in Education, half of whom fewer in the workforce, the situation will get even worse. It’s going to be austerity, and from an economic point of view, when you have economic activity which is reduced, you do not reduce public spending, because you increase the recessive aspect of this decline in activity. . This is something known in economics and this government is going to do exactly the opposite.

In your opinion, we should not reduce public spending since growth forecasts have been revised downwards?

First, we knew it. This afternoon, the two ministers kept telling us that things have evolved since the finance law was passed in the Assembly: this is not true, at the time we already knew that there would not be 1.4% growth. Either they are wrong and in this case we can consider that they are also wrong today in their economic policy, or they built a budget to avoid certain debates which allowed us to believe that we were always doing more for the ecological transition , for education, culture etc., knowing that they were going to come back on this budget a few months later, and that is exactly what happened. I consider that there are other ways of approaching economic activity when activity is reduced: the United States decided to let the deficit go by considering that the most important thing was growth. Conclusion: there is a stall in growth between the United States and Europe today, which continues its austerity policies. When you lower public spending, you lower one of the fires on which the economy relies. This is a constant that has always been true, and this government is taking risks by doing this. The second thing is that if we really want to reduce the deficit, there is perhaps another way than reducing public spending. We could take back part of the tax gifts made to some of our fellow citizens, I am thinking of those who have seen their dividends explode for several years and who could largely contribute to the effort: nothing is asked of them, with an enrichment that is becoming truly indecent compared to what the majority of our population suffers from.

What can we do when the boxes are empty?

Is this reasonable when we know that climate change threatens to reduce the ecological transition by almost 3 billion euros? Compared to future generations, we take on much greater responsibilities than deciding whether we are going to have 0.1 or 0.2% more deficit. Is it reasonable when National Education everywhere is cringing to reduce the number of teachers or people who look after students with disabilities? It depends on where you’re pointing the cursor. This country has too many unresolved needs to focus primarily on deficits, especially since in reality this is imposed on us by Brussels and not by economic logic. We could take back part of the taxes distributed to those who do not need it in this country. The 5 richest people in France have seen their income double since 2017 thanks to tax gifts or benefits made on wealth income. There is room to recover the few tens of billions missing from the state budget rather than taking them from education, ecological transition or housing. It is a question of choice and this government always intends to ensure that austerity policies are on the backs of working people, public services, public spending, social cohesion, and not on the backs of those who have been enriching themselves indecently for several years. They announced 20 billion euros less in public spending next year, 20+10 will make 30 billion: we have an austerity policy which will have consequences in everyone’s lives.