“We are not in a snowball effect,” assures Roland Lescure about the public debt

If the rise in interest rates is alarming, France is not at this stage caught “in a snowball effect” of its public debt, insisted Tuesday the Minister of the Economy Roland Lescure, however calling on the Assembly to adopt a budget. “France borrowed for ten years at zero rate, sometimes negative (...) in recent days this rate exceeds 4.5%,” alerted the Macronist minister from the gallery of the lower house, opening a debate on the debt prior to the discussion on the 2027 budget.

However, the “average interest rate on our debt must be 2.5% in 2027” when “our growth in value (...) that is to say the growth in volume to which we add inflation, should be 2.7%”, he detailed, stressing that the relationship between the two indicators made it possible to rule out at this stage “a snowball effect”. He called for a budget to be adopted to aim for a 5% public deficit in 2027, and to reduce the debt burden, which weighs “nearly 80 billion euros this year”. While parliamentary debates, like the presidential election, are observed by the markets, the resident of Bercy praised the French: “talents recognized throughout the world” or even “carbon-free electricity which is the envy of many, abundant and produced here”.

Skip the ad

The Minister of Public Accounts David Amiel took over, considering it “illusory to think that a minority part of the population, the ultra-rich, civil servants, retirees, foreigners, large companies could bear the bulk of the effort”. And this, while the government intends to make 45 billion euros in new efforts via the 2027 budget, with certain divisive measures in Parliament on retirees or communities.

Also read Anne de Guigné: “How a financial crisis would start in France”

“Austerity pill”

In the process, the political groups responded to the ministers. “The accounts are bad, but they are your results, not ours,” said RN deputy Kévin Mauvieux (RN), also worrying about the share of the debt, “a third” held by non-European residents. LFI President of the Finance Committee, Éric Coquerel, criticized an “organized catastrophism” around debt, “supposed to make people swallow the austerity pill”. If “the future is worrying”, the solution lies, according to him, through “a recovery policy”, rather than “budget cuts” which “harm growth”. He also renewed the rebellious proposal to “obtain the cancellation” of the share of debt held by the ECB.

An “illusory and dangerous” proposal, said Charles de Courson (Liot), proposing among other things to “voluntarily mobilize the savings of the French”, for example through “a national loan”. For the environmental group, Christine Arrighi castigated the “responsibility”, which would consist of “making the sick pay to save the wealthy”, calling for those who can to contribute to invest in what protects us”. “The ecological debt cannot be erased,” she concluded.