The executive, which puts the extreme right and the extreme left back to back, jumped at the opportunity. The economic program of the New Popular Front combining the lefts and made public on Friday June 14, is “a total delirium », immediately warned the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on Franceinfo, the same day. “It’s 1981 to the power of ten,” he assured, brandishing the specter of “return of mass unemployment”, of “declassification” and some “exit from Europe”. “Expect the worst!” “, he warned.
Although not quantified at this stage, the “NFP” program in fact includes several measures likely to shake up the budgets of its ministry, in a context of deterioration of accounts and tensions on the markets: repeal of the insurance reforms unemployment and pensions, 10% increase in housing assistance, exit from European budgetary rules, creation of subsidized jobs, increase in the index point for civil servants by 10%, universal rent guarantee, increase in the number of civil servants, increase of the budgets of certain ministries – sport would increase to 1% of the budget (i.e. 5 billion), and culture to 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP), or 26 billion euros.
Added to this are measures that are not very popular at Bercy, and more generally in the economic world, not because of their cost but because they are seen as harmful to the economy. Like the indexation of salaries to inflation, accused of fueling price rises, or the increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros, which some economists claim would harm employment. Same thing for the questioning of free trade, to which companies are generally attached. Or the refusal of European budgetary rules, which underpin the single currency and apply to 27 member countries. “We can always promise that we will shave for free, we can always promise that the average salary will be 2 000 euros for everyoneBruno Le Maire got carried away on Friday. But, when you forget economic reality, it reminds you of yourself. »
Complex construction site
The New Popular Front, which promises an amending budget this summer to “abolish the privileges of billionaires”rejects accusations of budgetary laxity, recalling that its 2022 program was ” loop “, in other words that the expenditure was financed by new revenue allowing, ultimately, to reduce the public deficit. The measures presented on Friday propose to tax the richest and large groups, and to reduce tax loopholes. Companies would see their aid or contribution reductions reduced, and their taxation increased, with increased taxation on financial transactions and on “super profits of agro-industrialists and mass retailers”. Wealthy households would once again be subject to the wealth tax (ISF), with a climate component, to the taxation of capital (removal of the “flat tax”), to the “exit tax” on taxpayers who left for abroad, while the inheritance tax would be increased by targeting large assets. Social security contributions on the highest salaries would be increased, as well as on financial income such as dividends, participation, employee savings, and overtime.
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