‘France getting out of its political crisis implies neutralizing the extremes’ – Technologist

As we head into the new year, none of the symptoms of the profound political crisis that marked 2024 are on track to get better. The new prime minister’s low popularity, his inability to broaden the narrow base of support established by his predecessor, the attacks he was immediately subjected to because he traveled to his town of Pau instead of catastrophe-stricken Mayotte or because his method of communication has been deemed obsolete: All tend to lend credence to the idea that politics in France has become a bloodthirsty game.

The target is no longer exclusively President Emmanuel Macron, who was considerably weakened by the dissolution of June 2024. It takes the face and form of his prime ministers, who, as soon as they are appointed, become the subjects of spiteful speculation. After Michel Barnier, how many weeks does the current prime minister, François Bayrou, have left without being shot down? The media machine, fueled by social media, provides the haunting background music to this infernal cycle of collective dissatisfaction, fueled by repeated controversies about anything and everything – except the essential issues.

Between Barnier’s resignation and the appointment of the Bayrou government, the public debt has continued to climb to €3.385 trillion, almost €50,000 per capita, and the economic situation has deteriorated without any issuer having sufficient legitimacy to explain the seriousness of the situation, and to sound the start of mobilization on it.

Sterile negotiations

In the December 29 issue of La Tribune Dimanche, the new economy minister, Eric Lombard, a reformist left-wing figure appreciated in economic circles, called for dialogue with the political parties represented in the Assemblée Nationale and Sénat. Lombard reminded them that a budget must still be adopted, and that the aim would be to reduce the public deficit from 6% of GDP, in 2024, to just over 5 % in 2025, by favoring spending cuts over tax increases – the scale of which he hopes to limit. This is hardly more authoritative than what Barnier had dared to draw up, in September 2024, when he tackled the budgetary challenge before falling off it a few weeks later, following sterile negotiations with parties that had no intention of concluding a deal.

You have 63.84% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.