Paris (AFP)

Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the nomination of the right to the presidential election, proposes to remove "150,000 positions in the" administration administration "during the next quinquennium, she indicates in an interview published Monday evening on the site of L ' Opinion.

"My objective is to eliminate 150,000 positions in the administering administration. The State must refocus on its three priority missions: protect, educate, treat, with where necessary additional positions for justice, education and care. It is not a question of degrading the public service, nor of breaking up the recovery. But spending must fall, "insists the president of the Ile-de-France region.

"To stop the explosion of the debt and bring it back in 2027 to the current level, we must reach 45 billion euros in savings, to which I add 15 billion in privatization revenues. The State has no vocation. to remain a minority shareholder in competitive companies, "continues the candidate, who is seeking the votes of LR members at the December 4 convention against her two main rivals Michel Barnier and Xavier Bertrand.

"If I am elected President of the Republic, my first decision will therefore be to initiate four major structural reforms to lower spending and reduce the tax burden," she adds, listing "retirement at 65, degression unemployment benefits, the debureaucratization of the country and decentralization with a letting go of the state to remove duplicates ".

In September, Valérie Pécresse had already mentioned the reduction "in five years of 10% of the + administrative administration +, that is to say of officials who manage standards and procedures".

"+ The administrative administration + exists only in the interviews of Valérie Pécresse", reacted Monday evening Amélie de Montchalin, minister of transformation and public service, on the social network Twitter.

"This very vague expression reflects the lack of vision of the State on the right. It is the return of the RGPP method: dark cuts without effectiveness," she said, in an allusion to the "revision general public policies "carried out during Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year term, from 2007 to 2012.

In 2017, François Fillon, defeated right-wing presidential candidate, defended the elimination of 500,000 public official positions in five years.

Emmanuel Macron, for his part, promised the elimination of 120,000 positions, 70,000 in local authorities and 50,000 positions in the State civil service, an objective abandoned in July 2019. The 2022 budget confirms the stability of the workforce of the civil service of State during the whole of the quinquennium.

In the interview granted to L'Opinion, Valérie Pécresse also offers "aid for local investment", in order to "rebalance the territories. In municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, individuals can invest in shares or lend to their local businesses over a minimum of five years with a 50% tax credit for a maximum investment of 20,000 euros, ”she suggests.

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