A tax increase that is hard to pass: why Prime Minister Barnier considers the country's budgetary situation “very serious” ?

“Very serious” is how the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier described the country's budgetary situation.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier deemed this Wednesday "very serious" the country's budgetary situation, in a statement to AFP, while his future government partners do not want to hear about tax increases.

A meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. between Barnier and members of parliament from the Ensemble pour la République group, which supports President Emmanuel Macron, to discuss this point in particular, has been “postponed” according to the Prime Minister's entourage. No new date has been scheduled at this stage. Still referring to France's budget, the former European Commissioner said he had “requested all the elements to assess its exact reality”.

“This situation deserves better than soundbites. “It demands responsibility,” adds Barnier, whom President Macron appointed to Matignon on September 5. “My goal is to get back on the path to growth and improve the standard of living of the French, while we are already the country with the highest tax burden.”, continues the Prime Minister, who currently says he is “very focused on the upcoming formation of a balanced government” to “methodically and seriously address the challenges” of the country.

Reducing the public deficit, an impossible objective ?

For his part, the first president of the French Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, estimated on Wednesday, September 18, that the objective set by the outgoing government to reduce the public deficit to 5.1% of GDP in 2024 would not be possible to achieve, public finances being severely degraded.

Heard before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, the former socialist Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2014 cited in particular tax revenues that risk being lower than expected, increased local authority spending and unrealized savings.

After seven years of tax cuts, according to several sources within the presidential camp, Michel Barnier recently startled some of his Macronist interlocutors and his political family Les Républicains by mentioning an increase in taxes, in the name of a stifling budgetary situation, but at the risk of depriving himself of support.