Gabriel Atal, cooked up about public deficit in the National Assembly, lets the taboo word slip.

Politics – Like Voldemort, but in economics. With the public deficit figure revised up to 5.5% of GDP, ahead of Bercy’s forecast, the government came under fire this Tuesday, March 26, with questions about the economy in the National Assembly. And the Prime Minister almost let the forbidden word slip: “Hardness”.

“Gabriel” replied LR group president Olivier Marlix, who was outraged “Negligence” of Government on Public Financial Management. By referring to which Gabriel Attal replied “Economic Depression” to deal with” “We obviously need a lot of rigor in the choices we make.”

Rigidity? Since it was used by François Mitterrand to announce the famous economic turnaround of 1983, the term should be avoided by the government because it is associated with bad news for French wallets – at the time, it was significantly translated by the mandatory increase. Contributions The same was true with the VAT hike by the Fillon government in 2011 and the Wales Plan in 2014.

While Le Maire answered “responsibility” instead of “austerity” or “restraint”.

The usage by the current Prime Minister this Tuesday is not the same as that of the former President of the Socialist Republic. But proof that the term remains sensitive, with Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire carefully avoiding using it himself. In November 2023, invited to choose between “Hardness” And “restraint” To qualify his fiscal policy, he replied “responsibility”. On RTL this Tuesday morning, he also refused to talk “screw tightening”.

“When you have less income, you have to adjust your spending and I think the French understand this very well,” For his part argued the head of government in the hemicycle. The budget topic is highly sensitive for the executive, as evidenced by the meetings and dinners held at the top of the state in recent weeks.

The central question is: how to limit the damage and make up for the shortage? Everyone has their own proposal in the midst of reforming the social model “very generous” (Eric Ciotti) and tax the rich on the left. In Bercy, the only certainty at this stage: there is no question of raising taxes whatever they are, Bruno Le Maire insisted, at the risk of parting ways with the majority.

The Prime Minister said in the Assembly that a possible Unemployment Insurance Reform”, because “The more we French people work, the more possibilities we have to balance our financial balance.” He is due to convene a government seminar on the theme of work in Matignon on Wednesday morning before being questioned by TF1 on the 8pm news. Bruno Le Maire also suggested that heads of parliamentary groups meet in Bercy to discuss different ways to save. “If there’s one point we can agree on, it’s that debt is the sword of Damocles over our country and a country’s sovereignty is obviously its ability to get out of debt.”The Prime Minister argued.

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