The executive and the majority must “resist the temptation of the easy way” and not increase taxes to deal with the degraded budgetary situation, Édouard Philippe warned on Friday.
We must remain faithful to the promise made by the President of the Republic in 2017, which we implemented and which remains an important promise, not to act on revenues, declared the former Prime Minister at the conclusion of a day of his party, Horizons, Besanon.
Raising taxes is always easy. But France is the country where compulsory deductions weigh on the life of the nation like nowhere else, assured Mr. Philippe.
The truth is that increasing taxes, even on capital, even on the richest, ultimately impoverishes the country’s economy. It may not be popular, it may be difficult to explain, but if we don’t say it, we once again open the door to the economic and financial weakening of our country. I don’t want it, I never will, he insisted, particularly applauded.
We must act on expenses, therefore, since we must be careful about revenues, advocated the mayor of Le Havre, calling on the State to pool support functions, merge duplicates, gain in productivity through digital technology, through artificial intelligence.
I know well that we are always tempted to prefer the planer to the overall reform but we cannot think of the best interests of the country in the short term, continued Edouard Philippe.
Gabriel Attal is right to consider that by further improving the labor market, we will be able to further increase the quantity of work and therefore the production of wealth of the French, I support him, of course, he added, while a new unemployment insurance reform divides the presidential majority.
Housing, all-out intervention by public actors on all subjects, state aid, tax fraud, public jobs: the areas in which to intervene are numerous, and we will have to go there, he concluded.