By announcing a precise deconfinement schedule in the regional press, Friday April 30, Emmanuel Macron did not only give the starting signal for the reopening of the country, while the Covid-19 pandemic remains at a very high level. The Head of State also expressed his desire to invent a “Second step of the revival”. “It will have to go through a drastic simplification and an acceleration of investments”, said the tenant of the Elysee in his interview, without further details.
According to our information, this is indeed a second stimulus plan on which the executive is working, in addition to the first, voted in the fall of 2020. “The sizing of the foreground appears a little lower than what is necessary to join our growth path”, summarizes a source within the executive, evoking a “Investment plan which is both the extension and the relay of the first”. A track already mentioned by the president in an intervention after a European summit at the end of March. Emmanuel Macron then indicated that Europe should “Improve” its economic and budgetary response to the crisis, so that the recovery is “More vigorous” and does not diverge too much from that of the United States.
Launched with great fanfare in September 2020 with the dual desire to boost the economy and jobs after the crisis, and to “Relaunch the France of 2030”, this first plan of 100 billion euros quickly collided with the second, then the third wave of the pandemic. The health crisis lasted longer than expected and the return to better fortune, initially expected in the first half of 2021, will rather take place in the second, we recognize within the government.
American example
One of the objectives of the autumn plan was to return in 2022 to the level of economic activity of 2019. This new plan would aim to make up for the growth lost during the pandemic. “We are coming out of the crisis with growth below the potential of our economy, says one within the executive. The question that arises today is: are we doing enough? “
The American example is obviously in everyone’s mind. After deploying $ 1.9 trillion to support the economy at the start of the year, US President Joe Biden has been carrying out for a few weeks a gigantic infrastructure investment plan, the envelope of which will exceed $ 2 trillion – if it is adopted in Congress. Even if a not insignificant part of the funds actually compensates for the absence of social safety nets, making it difficult to compare the figures, “There is a desire to invest massively in research, technological innovation, the sectors of the future”, we insist. The stake: the risk of France and Europe dropping out from the United States and China.
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