France's minority administration will submit a preliminary budget plan for the upcoming year during the evening hours on Thursday.
After a week's delay, France's short-term administration will proposit their budget draft for the forthcoming year on Thursday night. The 33-year-old Minister of Economy, Antoine Armand, and Minister of Finance, Laurent Saint-Martin, will showcase the plan, crafted in merely three weeks, targeting a savings of 60 billion euros in the upcoming year. This will be accomplished through both tax hikes and spending cuts.
The left opposition has vocally criticized the draft budget, its main points being public knowledge. "This is the most severe austerity measure the nation has ever witnessed. (...) The people of France will suffer," declared Manuel Bompard, a left-wing populist MP, on Thursday, speaking on the LCI channel. The leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, criticized the fact that tax increases for large corporations and affluent families are only temporary, while the other austerity measures are permanent.
Faure added, "The government wants the elderly and the sick to bear the brunt of these cuts first," referring to proposals to delay the next pension increase by half a year and lower the health insurance contribution for sick pay.
Criticism also came from within Macron's political circle. The chairman of Macron's party, former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, had voiced concerns the previous day that the draft budget "lacks sufficient reforms, but is overburdened with taxes." The tax hike for corporations signifies a shift from President Emmanuel Macron's earlier business-friendly policy, which aimed to lure as many foreign investors as possible.
The left opposition has been expressing their discontent towards the week-long delayed budget draft, arguing that it represents the most severe austerity measure in France's history. Despite the proposed tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at saving 60 billion euros, the leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, is concerned about the long-term impact on vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the sick.
