Laura Laplaud with AFP
modified to
9:23 a.m., June 27, 2022
French public debt reached 114.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of the first quarter of 2022, against 112.9% at the end of December 2021 according to INSEE. For the new president of the LR group in the National Assembly, Olivier Marleix, “the situation could become worrying” in the coming months.
What opposition will they embody? Are they ready to compromise with the executive? While public debt climbed to 114.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter, INSEE announced on Friday (against 112.9% at the end of December 2021), the new president of the group Les Républicains ( LR) to the National Assembly, Olivier Marleix, says he is “very angry with those who have put this subject under the table”. “Today, reality catches up with us […] if we are not very serious in the weeks, the months to come, the situation could become extremely serious, worrying, out of control in France”, he assured the microphone of Europe 1 on Monday.
“The French debt situation today is very serious, really very serious, perhaps even more than serious,” said Olivier Marleix. This sharp increase is mainly due to the increase in the State debt (+64.8 billion euros) while that of the social security administrations is progressing more timidly (+25.6 billion euros). France’s public debt has reached an absolute value of 2,901.8 billion euros, INSEE details.
Olivier Marleix, fervent critic of Emmanuel Macron
A situation which “creates an immense responsibility for everyone” affirmed Olivier Marleix. A responsibility “for the President of the Republic to know how to create the conditions for dialogue and listening. He has always shown a certain plasticity in substance, I don’t know if in form, in his ego, he would be capable of this same plasticity. I wish it in any case for the country, and on our part, obviously, we will be a responsible but demanding opposition”, he decided.
Olivier Marleix is a fervent critic of the economic and industrial policy of the Head of State. “I will be an incorruptible president, I will not let myself be bought,” he declared as the new president of the LR group in the Assembly.