The idea presented by François Bayrou of a referendum about the reduction of “a general plan” in deficits, while his government seeks 40 billion euros in savings for next year, was welcomed with skepticism on Sunday by the political class, on the left and the right.
“There is no need for a referendum to discover that the French have enough tax increases. And the only thing asked for the prime minister is to finally have the courage to address the waste of public money,” France 3 Laurent Wauquiez, the head of the agents of Les Républicins, addressed, a force that has no displacement participates in the coalition of the government of François Bayrou.
“We have a prime minister that procrastin, which only seeks to save time and does not decide,” he lamented.
“It is a general plan that I want to present, he will ask for everyone’s efforts, and to the extent that he must be his, he cannot succeed if the French people do not support him,” said Prime Minister in an interview with The Sunday Journal and published on Saturday night.
The Government, which managed to adopt state and social security budgets of 2025 at the beginning of the year, by escape from a series of censorship motions, is now dedicated to the preparation of the budget by 2026.
He believes that he must find 40 billion euros to respect his objectives to reduce the public deficit of 5.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year to 4.6% next year.
For the Prime Minister, if his plan to reduce deficits and the state reform was approved by the referendum, this would give him a form of legitimacy. It is sufficient, expects, make state and social security budgets more easily adopt by Parliament.
“When we reformed for classical forms, by the passage in force, what happens? The country smells on strike, the manifestations are linked,” he begged in the JDD columns.
“Extravagant” idea
Little luck, however, that he convinces to the left, enormously opposite to a reduction in expenses and that he would prefer to increase income, particularly by taxing large fortunes and large companies.
For the National Coordinator of Insumise France (LFI) Manuel Bompard, questioned on Sunday about LCI, the idea of the prime minister is “crazy.”
“What question will people ask you? Will send a budget project, will ask them if they are in favor or against it? But then, who will have developed this budget draft, François Bayrou himself? Can you see that it is nothing general,” he denounced.
Aurore Bergé, the minister responsible for the equality of women, a member of the presidential party of the Renaissance, does not necessarily see it a way to avoid Parliament. ” “It would depend on the question asked,” said RTL and M6.
On the left, all parliamentary groups voted for the censorship of François Bayrou last winter, except the socialists who allowed the government to remain. And in this idea of a referendum, your support still seems far from acquiring.
PS Olivier Faure head denounced a “quite eccentric” idea, rather, a referendum about pensions.
“I fear that it is a smoke screen and that it is very difficult to vote for itself or not to a budget project that involves all sectors, from defense to education, including everything that includes a budget, that is, the life of the nation,” he argued in BFMTV.
A legally committed project?
The fact is that the prerogative to request his opinion of the French by referendum belongs only to the President of the Republic, who had been warned about the departure of this interview.
The referendum as outlined by François Bayrou would be the first in the fifth republic to focus on budgetary issues. It would seem politically risky for an executive in the lowest popularity surveys.
The French were last consulted in 2005, about the ratification of the treaty that establishes a Constitution for Europe. The “no” had won.
Source: BFM TV
