PARIS (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday told lawmakers that France was drowning in debt, but pledged to listen to ideas to renegotiate a landmark 2023 pension reform in a bid to win support from the left to pass the 2025 budget.
Below are some of the key quotes from his speech in parliament:
DEBT:
“There are countless causes for concern. However, there is one that emerges with glaring force: our country’s over-indebtedness.”
“Since the war, France has never in its history been as indebted as it is today. I affirm that no policy of recovery and rebuilding can be conducted if it does not take into account our over-indebtedness and if it does not set itself the objective of containing and reducing it.”
“I affirm that all the so-called government parties have a responsibility in the situation created in recent decades. And I affirm that all the opposition parties, constantly demanding additional spending, have also danced the fatal tango that has led us to the edge of this precipice.”
“This debt is a Damocles’ sword hanging over our country and our social model.”
EUROPE:
“For France to keep its treasure of civilization alive and to continue to share it with the world, Europe, our Europe, must become a strategic community, a political and defence power on the dimension of the economic power that it should be.”
“France’s prosperity depends on that of Europe.”
POLITICAL DEADLOCK:
“Our deadlock is not only financial. It is also political.”
“At the heart of this deadlock there is something cultural, our inability to live with pluralism; to disagree without threatening each other with the worst. Indictments and invectives undermine citizens’ trust. It’s time to change our democratic software.”
PENSION REFORM:
“The imbalance of our pension system and the massive debt it has created cannot be ignored or evaded.”
“Pension reform is vital for our country and our social model.”
“I note considerable progress in this impassioned debate: no one denies that there is a serious problem financing our pension system. At the same time, many of the participants in the discussions affirmed that there were ways to improve, that the same result could be obtained through a fairer reform. I have therefore chosen to revisit this issue, with the social partners, for a short time, and under transparent conditions.”
“I hope that this agreement will be reached. But if the partners do not agree, the current reform will continue to apply.”
PUBLIC FINANCES:
“The objective is: 3% public deficit in 2029 … It will be proposed to set the public deficit target for 2025 at 5.4% of GDP.”
“I am announcing the creation of a special fund entirely dedicated to state reform, financed by realizing a portion of the assets, particularly real estate, that belong to public authorities so that we can invest, for example, in the deployment of artificial intelligence in our public services …”
CUTTING RED TAPE
“The government will engage in a powerful movement of debureaucratization. The bill to simplify economic life that has begun to be examined must be adopted quickly.”
MAYOTTE:
“The migration crisis that this (overseas) department is experiencing can no longer be ignored, unless we want to make the people of Mayotte second-class French people. No debate is taboo on this subject.”
NEW CALEDONIA:
The events of May 2024 have plunged this territory into a deep quagmire. I hope that the political process will resume with negotiations that should be concluded by the end of the quarter. At the end of January, I will invite the political forces to come to Paris to open these negotiations …”
MERCOSUR:
“The agreement with Mercosur imposes production standards on our farmers that are not imposed on their competitors. This is unacceptable.”