“The step is so high that it would be unprecedented in terms of a reduction in public spending”, according to Éric Coquerel

The executive announced on Wednesday its measures to reduce its public deficit below 3% of GDP in 2027.

While the government presented its stability program to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday April 17 containing its forecasts for reducing the deficit by 2027, this path towards a return below 3% of GDP lacks “credibility” and of “consistency”estimates the High Council of Public Finances (HCFP). “Everyone knows that this will not be achieved”affirms for his part the president of the Finance Committee Éric Coquerel, also LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, Wednesday on franceinfo.

The stability program provides for a recovery of the deficit to 5.1% in 2024, 4.1% in 2025, 3.6% in 2026 and finally 2.9% in 2027. “The step is so high that it would be unprecedented in terms of a reduction in public spending”tackles the deputy. “Their objective is bad and I think that if it is bad and thwarted by reality, it would perhaps be urgent to think that it is the government’s policy which is failing”he asserts.

Éric Coquerel pleads for more recipes

According to the LFI deputy, France “has a revenue problem” to finance “the ecological transition and to meet the social needs of the French”which would require cutting “tax gifts (distributed) since 2017”. “France no longer has the means for these tax gifts given to the richest, which are very costly in terms of inequalities and which only increase the deficit”he adds. “For the moment, those who must make efforts are the unemployed, employees, social protection but we never touch capital income”, he emphasizes. For Éric Coquerel, “by playing on tax loopholes, aid to businesses, the taxation of super dividends, several tens of billions of euros could easily be brought back into the coffers”.