Budget: an essential compromise

"The situation is serious." This assessment of France's public debt, delivered in a broad tone by François Bayrou, has not borne fruit. While the French are increasingly concerned about the issue, the vast majority are not ready to take on the budgetary efforts demanded by a Prime Minister who is breaking records for unpopularity and struggling to convince others that his savings plan is fair. The gamble of calling for a vote of confidence on Monday, September 8, in the National Assembly is backfiring on its initiator. For someone who wanted to reconcile a fractured country, the failure is resounding and only complicates the equation even further.

While there's no point in overdramatizing the budgetary situation, it's essential to take a clear look at the problem. France is living beyond its means, and borrowing is becoming increasingly expensive. The main challenge of debt reduction is to preserve the country's ability to maintain room for maneuver to guide its political and economic choices—in other words, its sovereignty.

Continuing to let our deficits drift by financing current expenditures without worrying about increasing the wealth produced is no longer sustainable. If the brake on a debt that now exceeds 3.4 trillion euros is not quickly activated, our borrowing conditions will inexorably deteriorate, increasing the interest burden and reducing our investment capacity. We would condemn ourselves to mortgaging the country's future.

Debt interest is poised to become the country's largest budget item. Tens of billions of euros must be financed through new levies or by continuing to raise ever more debt in a deadly vicious circle. This fall, lacking a credible budget and political stability, financial rating agencies will downgrade France's sovereign debt, further increasing our borrowing costs. These are already higher than those of Greece or Spain and are now at the same level as those of Italy, long considered the sick man of Europe. Under these conditions, how can we continue to assert our interests on the international stage at a time when a historic reshuffling of the cards is taking place?

Whatever mistakes François Bayrou makes in his method, each of the actors, political parties as well as social partners, must pull themselves together and agree to enter into a logic of compromise, while the current temptation remains to defend their interests at all costs. The employers are engaging in liberal overbidding where The challenge is to agree on a minimum acceptable to all French people. The unions immediately exclude any effort for employees, as if, in this inextricable situation, the "always more" were still relevant. The left is blocking spending cuts, the right, increasing taxes. And each blames the other for the impasse.

While not insignificant, the cuts requested for 2026 are not an austerity plan. They represent 2.6% of public spending that will continue to increase. If, within this framework, everyone does not agree to make a minimum of concessions to fairly share the budgetary effort, refusing to address obstacles will only amplify the problem and increase the final bill. There will be no winners.