2026 Budget: "Since yesterday evening, France has been borrowing more than Italy," warns Economy Minister Eric Lombard.

As Jean-Hervé Lorenzi, president of the Aix-en-Provence Economic Meetings, pointed out at the end of the special session dedicated to the Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, it took him only 16 minutes to convey an essential message: the need to reduce the public deficit, and therefore to validate the budget that the Prime Minister is preparing to present on July 15. "We are at a historic moment, because since yesterday evening, we have been borrowing more than Italy."

In other words, the rates at which creditors are willing to lend to France are higher than those enjoyed by our neighbor, due to France's financial situation. "This year, the debt burden is 67 billion euros, more than the Defense budget, and in three years it will be 100 billion, so if we don't stabilize the debt, we will lose all capacity for sovereignty, the capacity to invest, to prepare for the future, and so for that, we must make an effort, which has been made throughout history, to stabilize public spending, because we have 57% of GDP (gross domestic product, Editor's note) of public spending, and it is by adjusting spending that we will restore balance and not by tax increases, this is the theme that the Prime Minister will develop on July 15," hammered the Minister of the Economy, before going into the political arena.

Protecting industry from China

"You're going to tell me, you don't have a majority, no we don't have a majority, except that it's a subject of national interest, (...) so we're working with all the parties, we're currently redoing what we did in January, to get the 2025 finance law passed, we're receiving all the parties at Bercy, with Amélie de Montchalin, we've started, we'll have seen them all in time for the presentation on July 15. There will be a model that will be presented, we'll start discussing and we'll continue at the start of the school year. (...) I think that the urgency in which we find ourselves, the vital interest of the country, must allow us to have the broadest agreement so that this budget is voted on and allow us to begin the budgetary and economic recovery."

Eric Lombard, in his presentation to a packed room, also called for the protection of European industry from China as trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States draw to a close.

"We need to change the rules of the European game. We need to protect our industry. We did this by starting to erect customs barriers, we did it on steel, and we need to strengthen these barriers. We did it on the automobile industry, but we need to do it across all our industrial segments, otherwise the Chinese policy, which consists of having a production capacity in each industrial segment that exceeds 50% of the global market share, will kill our industry."

The Minister of Economy emphasized the closeness of vision with the German coalition, whose representatives he will meet next week in Berlin "to find a very dynamic political agenda."

The Bercy minister finally believes that an agreement could be reached this weekend between Europe and the United States regarding customs tariffs. "Otherwise, Europe will undoubtedly have to demonstrate a more rigorous response to restore balance."