The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, March 12, 2024 in Paris (POOL/AFP/Ludovic MARIN)
End of the French welfare state, budget cuts, European artificial intelligence community, European sovereignty… The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire set out his political vision in a long interview with the Journal du Dimanche, published on the occasion of the release of a new book.
If “The French Way”, to be published by Flammarion, is an “act of faith towards France” and not a presidential program, assures Bruno Le Maire, his three-page interview nevertheless has the appearance of a political program.
The tenant of Bercy for seven years, to whom presidential ambitions are regularly attributed, says he is “totally committed to the European elections” and avoids the question of 2027.
In the context of a high public deficit, the minister once again advocated rigor and choices to be made in public spending. “We must replace the welfare state with the protective state,” he says.
According to him, “everywhere in Europe”, but “especially in France”, “the welfare state has ended up becoming a machine for piling up new public expenditure” and “we must regain control of this system which has become uncontrollable.”
According to him, the current model has as its “ultimate goal free everything, for everyone, all the time: it is untenable!”. “The time for choices has come”, to escape from the “mirage of universal free access”, he asserts.
Bruno Le Maire still pleads for a “better organization of public services”, estimating that “we are not getting value for our money”, and announces that “with the Minister of Public Accounts” Thomas Cazenave, after the current review of public spending, he will invite “in April all political forces to participate in an exchange on spending priorities”.
After a first pension reform carried out by the government in 2023, and two controversial reforms in 2019 and 2023 on unemployment insurance rights, Bruno Le Maire is giving another layer on his desire to further tighten insurance conditions -unemployment, “more generous” than elsewhere in Europe.
In February, he announced a savings plan of 10 billion for 2024, quickly materialized by a decree in the Official Journal, in the face of a downward revision of the growth forecast for this year, from 1.4% to 1%.
And for 2025, at least 20 billion will have to be saved, with Social Security spending in Bercy’s sights. Ultimately, the objective is to bring the public deficit back below 3% of GDP in 2027 (compared to 4.9% in 2023).
– Europe, Russia, equality… –
But for now, France is in the sights of rating agencies, including S&P which has highlighted “uncertainties” and risks weighing on French public finances.
The Minister of the Economy also wants to shake up the European Union (EU), which needs to “accelerate” and “implement” a “new strategy” of economic sovereignty, in the face of “an increasingly interventionist” economically and “an increasingly protectionist United States.”
He advocates “the creation of a European artificial intelligence community” (AI) in order to enable the EU to “win the AI battle” and “embrace innovation and risk, prioritizing massive investment before regulation.
This roadmap requires more funding and therefore involves, according to the French minister, progress in the construction of a “capital markets union”, a project for which he expects “a real commitment from Germany”, says the minister, who is going to Berlin on Monday and Tuesday.
On the geopolitical level, Bruno Le Maire, who presents himself in line with Emmanuel Macron, believes that “Europe must adopt a posture of absolute firmness with regard to Russian power” and that “Vladimir Putin will only hear force “.
Not forgotten in this interview: gender equality, with a proposal to establish quotas in “scientific preparatory classes”; the organization of the State and its “sclerotic system of governance, at the local and national levels”, according to Bruno Le Maire; or even purchasing power, with a call on companies to increase salaries in 2024.
© 2024 AFP
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