Since November 12, France has theoretically no money in its coffers, according to the Molinari Institute. The most worrying is that the gap has continued to widen with other European countries, and that the French continue to ask for more, warns our columnist Nicolas Beytout.

EDITORIAL

>>> Today is 13 November, and since 24 hours, the state has no money. More money to pay officials, more money to maintain roads, build hospitals or improve public services. More money to increase the number of nurses, to pay teachers more, to hire police officers or to send military personnel to external operations.

So of course, it's an image, the state can always borrow. But it is also a reality. This is demonstrated by a study, fantastic clarity, which was conducted by researchers gathered at the Molinari Institute, a French think tank that works on the weight of the state. You know, of course, the famous rule of the 3% deficit, which is generally called the 3% of Maastricht. This is the rule that Emmanuel Macron just challenged in an interview with the Anglo-Saxon magazine The Economist .

Precisely. The head of state says that the debate around this rule of 3% is "another century". So, I looked at the numbers. And it turns out that France will be the only country this year to exceed 3% of the public deficit. In other words, we are in the situation of the bad student who explains that the rating scale of his copy is totally exceeded.

In the same situation as ... Romania

And to better understand concretely what this posture of France has incongruous, here is a very instructive comparison. If we look at the finances of the State, of all the central administrations (we put aside the Social Security and the local communities), there was more money on November 12 and probably even before. We are in the same situation as ... Romania, also in virtual cessation of payment on this date.

And the other European countries, they are doing better, much better. Even Italy, a well-known bad student, will only run out of public finances in 3 weeks. On average, European states hold until 16 December. This means that the budget impasse in these countries is minimal. And as you can imagine, many surplus countries have enough resources to buckle the year. They are eleven in this case. Of which Germany, of course, holds until 18 January. But also Sweden, with its virtuous social model, very social-democratic, which also has reservations until mid-January.

This is perhaps the most worrying: almost all countries have improved their situation since the economic crisis. They have widened the gap with France, they have reduced their expenses, not us. Whenever a Frenchman asks more for the state, he should have this figure in mind (49 days out of money), and wonder if he would accept him, to get into debt even more.