The weight of French public debt and the question of sovereignty

Does the weight of our public debt threaten our sovereignty? That France's debt, which reached 3,595.5 billion euros in the second quarter, according to INSEE (i.e. 119% of gross domestic product), comes at a high cost is now no secret: according to Senate estimates, the debt burden should reach 74 billion euros in interest for the year 2026, i.e. more than the National Education budget. But beyond its amount, part of the political class is now worried about the weight occupied by foreign investors: “When you make up your budget with loans made by people who are mainly foreigners, you are not totally sovereign,” LR MP Philippe Juvin worried at the beginning of September. Is this concern legitimate, and what exactly do we know about our foreign creditors?

Philippe Juvin's remark on the proportion of foreign holding of French debt is indeed verified in the figures. In the first quarter of 2026, 57.5% of the State's negotiable debt was in fact held by “non-residents”, according to the Banque de France. After approximately 56% in 2025 and 55% in 2024, the trend is therefore upward, and places France among the advanced countries with the highest proportion of foreign holders. This share is in fact only 42% in Spain, 32% in the United Kingdom, 27% in Italy and 23% in…