Budget: 4.6% deficit target for 2026, "efforts" but no general tax increase

The deficit is "at 5.8%" of the gross domestic product, "this year we will go to 5.4% and next year, (...) we will go towards 4.6%", he affirmed, emphasizing that "the government will say what the constraints are, the efforts necessary, the decisions to be taken to get out of this death trap", without wanting to reveal its tracks.

"I want everyone to participate" in the effort to save around 40 billion euros for France's next budget, explained the head of government, saying he did not want "some categories to be targeted and others to be untargeted," but "with an effort of justice that will obviously have to be put in place."

A few days before the presentation of a plan to restore public finances, "there may be particular efforts here and there, but I do not believe that it is through taxes that we resolve problems," Mr. Bayrou further argued, but through the reduction of "public spending."

"If prosperity came from taxes, since we have the highest taxes in the world, we would be the richest in the world," he added, calling for "common sense."