2026 Budget: "The effort rests heavily on the State" according to Pierre Moscovici

The State is at the forefront of budgetary efforts. Pierre Moscovici, the first president of the Court of Auditors, was interviewed Tuesday on LCI (Language Express), emphasizing that the State was particularly affected by the savings plans presented earlier in the day by Prime Minister François Bayrou.

With the spending freeze next year (with the exception of the cost of debt and additional spending for the armed forces budget), the elimination of 3,000 public sector jobs and the non-replacement of one in three civil servants retiring, "ultimately, the burden falls heavily on the State," observed Pierre Moscovici. "It is the State that is affected, much more than local authorities and much more than social security and health insurance," he stated. However, "the State has already contributed quite a bit over the last two years," according to him.

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François Bayrou "is right to say that the priority now must be debt reduction, that French debt reduction is imperative," said Pierre Moscovici, who approved in passing "the scale of the effort that is being requested" by the head of government, in the order of 43.8 billion euros of savings for next year. The main measures, "quite effective financially (...) are not structural measures either," he also said.