This is the second ministerial visit in less than a month for the department of Mayenne. This Thursday, Olivier Dussopt, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, in charge of Public Accounts is expected in Laval at midday. He will first meet with officials from the Departmental Directorate of Public Finance who have recently arrived in Mayenne, as part of the relocation of certain public services hired in 2019 in the regions. Then Olivier Dussopt will visit the STTM company in Changé, specializing in precision mechanics, and which benefits from the France Relance Plan. Before his arrival, the minister gave an interview to France Bleu Mayenne.
– Why was the redeployment of certain public services in the provinces important?
Well, the Ministry of Public Accounts has chosen to identify services, located in Paris or in large metropolitan areas such as Bordeaux and Lyon, whose activity can ultimately be carried out anywhere else, because it is a dematerialized activity by email. or by phone. We have identified these services to number 66 and we have launched a call for applications. More than 450 municipalities responded. And among them: Laval who was selected. For this city, we have chosen to set up a state pension management service, with 34 agents in the long term. Today around thirty agents have already arrived. They took up their duties on September 1 in Laval. Deploying civil servant positions in municipalities, in departments, outside metropolitan areas, is also to contribute to regional planning.
– But after the coronavirus crisis, was there a real need for decentralization?
This is a decision we made before the coronavirus crisis. But this epidemic has led a certain number of inhabitants of large metropolises to choose to go to cities of smaller sizes. Laval is a large city, but we are also establishing services in municipalities that are smaller in size. I am thinking of Alençon, in Orne, Tournon-sur-Rhône in Ardèche, or even of Digne, in the Alpes de Haute Provence. In this new 2021 school year, public services have opened in about twenty municipalities out of the 66 selected. And everywhere in the country, we have more candidates than places available. This shows a desire, a yearning for family reunification, but also for life choices outside large metropolises and large urban areas.
You will also visit the STTM company in Changé near Laval, specializing in precision mechanics. It benefited from the France Relance plan. How much was invested by the State in Mayenne as part of this operation?
37 billion euros have been committed since the start of the crisis in Mayenne. This represents 86 million euros committed for the benefit of companies. We funded the partial activity very heavily. This represents more than 35 billion euros at the national level. We have set up loans guaranteed by the state. In Mayenne, 436 million euros were thus borrowed by companies to get through the crisis. The State responded massively to the economic and social crisis which was the consequence of the health crisis. Beyond this emergency aid, beyond this support for companies facing difficulties, we have also implemented a recovery plan. And this stimulus plan is bearing fruit since today, France is experiencing the highest growth rate in the euro zone, with growth of 6.25% minimum. It also translates into a falling unemployment rate. We are now at 7.6 unemployment. It is still a lot, but we had never reached this level since the end of 2007. And therefore, France has returned to its lowest level of unemployment for fifteen years, with a drop in youth unemployment.
– The Government that you represent took out the checkbook in the midst of a health crisis to keep our economy afloat at the cost, but at the cost of significant indebtedness. Was this really the only solution to save France?
When we choose to intervene and respond at “whatever the cost” to the crisis we are going through, this has inevitably resulted in a deterioration of public accounts. In 2020, we experienced a public deficit of 9.1. In 2021, it will still be 8.1%. That’s a lot, but we were worried that it was 9. Our results are better than expected. In 2022, we will return to a deficit level of 5%. And I say this, because obviously this massive response is necessary and essential for companies to pass the course, for the French to face the crisis. It comes at a cost and it translates into these deficits and that translates into debt that we have to face. We are not already on a good trajectory, a recovery trajectory, a growth trajectory. Who says growth also says production of wealth, says tax revenue for the State and therefore the ability to restore the situation. And I repeat, at the heart of the crisis in 2020, the deficit reached + 9%. Next year it will be 5%. It is half the road that is traveled by a return to balance.
How do you plan to absorb this debt, which has reached an historic level? Are we at about 118% of the gross domestic product?
We will be at least next year: around 116. It is also rather a good orientation that must be preserved. France has always repaid its debts and we will continue to do so. And we made a choice which is to push growth. When we push growth, we create jobs, we create income, we create tax revenue, we create revenue, payroll taxes and this helps to amortize the debt. Our objective is to amortize the specific debt to municipalities by 2042. But our objective is also to do so through growth, without renewing it, without repeating the mistake that was made in 2010-2011 after the great financial crisis or the desire to straighten out the accounts too quickly had stifled growth and stifled job creation.
Future generations will irremediably pay for the strategy of “whatever it costs“? Are they going to have to pay our debts?
Public debt is always a burden for generations and we must keep in mind that after the 2010 crisis, more than 20 additional debt points were generated, and that since then this debt has grown again. . Unfortunately, the crisis will cost us between twelve and thirteen points of debt. It is a burden for all. We must take care of it. It should not be weighed down. We have chosen to reimburse it gradually. For example, in the 2022 budget, we are already entering two billion euros to reimburse it. And these two billion euros are not money that we take away from ministries or from public policies. It is two billion euros that we can use because they correspond to part of the additional revenue.