Budget 2024: Bruno Retailleau considers the savings insufficient and wants to "put the State to dry bread"

Yanis Darras with AFP 10:04 am, September 27, 2023

The 2024 Finance Bill finally arrives before parliamentarians. On the agenda, a declining budget, a first since 2015. But questioned on the subject during the Grande interview Europe 1-CNews, Bruno Retailleau confirmed that The Republicans will propose "much more savings" than the 16 billion provided for in the project presented by the government. The senator of the Vendée wants to "put the State to dry bread". "16 billion in savings is nothing" because they are mainly based on the shutdown of "exceptional devices" such as the energy shield, he explains at the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk. "Most ministries will see their spending increase," he said.

"We are going into the wall, we have more than 3,000 billion euros in debt (...) Interest rates are exploding and one day we will have a serious problem," he warned. For Bruno Retailleau, this situation will last "as long as the State does not put itself to dry bread to ensure what is the proper of the State, its sovereign missions on security, and straighten public services".

A point of view shared by the Centrist Union

"How to explain that we are the most taxed country in the world, that we have the highest public spending in the world and yet we have a collapse of public services everywhere in France," he asked. For his part, the president of the Centrist Union group in the Senate Hervé Marseille also judged that "16 billion in savings is not enough" because "the debt burden is becoming monstrous".

"The difference with our Republican partners is that we want savings but also a tax lever so measures that make it possible to find revenue margins," he said on Public Senate. "There are tax loopholes that deserve to be reconsidered," he said.