Barely a week to win the victory against an elected president, destabilized but not defeated: the challenge is great for the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes). Faced with an outgoing majority without a specific program, the supporters of Nupes are trying to create debate, circumvent the invectives and force their opponent out of the woods by unveiling, in the coming week, necessarily unpopular economic measures. Even if it means using drastic measures: lending Emmanuel Macron a measure that the government does not want to hear about, the increase in value added tax (VAT).
For lack of a precise program to criticize, to find a weapon of mobilization for the second round of the legislative elections, the forces of the left are reduced to denouncing the “hidden program” of the head of state. Sunday evening, during his speech after the announcement of the results of the first round, Jean-Luc Mélenchon thus evoked “the hidden part of his program which could never be debated (…), the 80 billion that he intended to withdraw from the state budget to achieve the return of the 3% deficit that he had imprudently promised to the European Commission”. On Monday, in front of the press, he assumed “answer instead” of the executive on these 80 billion euros. “They will repeat what Mr. Sarkozy did… but let someone tell me ‘no, it’s not true, we are committing to the French not to do it’”, he added.
The executive has always claimed to want to bring the public deficit below 3% of GDP in 2027. Emmanuel Macron indicated this several times during the campaign, and this objective was already included in the 2021-2027 stability program submitted in the spring of 2021 to the European Commission. This document, which details the multi-year trajectory of public finances established by Bercy, is normally sent to Brussels each year in the spring, but was not sent in 2022 due to the elections. Bercy plans to send it at the beginning of the summer, when the various texts on purchasing power are presented. “Opportunely, France has asked for a delay”, remarks MEP La France insoumise Manon Aubry.
“This assertion is not based on anything”
The calculation made by the “rebellious” corresponds to a return to the public deficit from 6.5% last year to 3% of GDP in 2027 (one point of GDP worth around 25 billion), i.e. 80 billion in savings or additional revenue. “Two solutions: either they cut public spending, the hospital, the school, already hard hit, or they increase revenue, continues the deputy. This money, we can either recover it from the richest, but this is not what had been done during the last five-year term, or they recover it in an insidious way, for example by a social VAT. Are they going to introduce a social VAT? Let them answer! »
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