Although former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has not been in office for over a month, his resigning government has sent ministries their budget instructions for 2025, forbidding them to spend any more. The move is seen by the political opposition as a denial of democracy on the part of the presidential camp, which is clinging to power.
Traditionally, the ‘ceiling letters’ (lettres plafonds) sent out in the summer outline the authorised amount of spending per ministry for the coming year. Attal sent his instructions to the ministries on Tuesday, August 21st—even though he resigned from his post over a month ago and is no longer supposed to have a say in the country’s future policy.
The sending of these letters is all the more absurd because they run the risk of contradicting the budgetary guidelines of the next government. Attal defended himself by explaining that this is a technical imperative at this time of year, and that the budget may well be “reversible” and readjusted by the new government—which only adds to the absurdity of his approach.
Gabriel Attal’s letters provide for a freeze on departmental spending for 2025. The budget for 2024 will remain unchanged at €492 billion. Attal’s concern is that the team that will succeed him “will have the means to present a budget within the timeframe laid down by the organic laws.” Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister for the Economy, had proposed savings of €5 billion, but these were ultimately rejected by Attal.
The vote on the budget is certain to be one of the most sensitive issues of the coming weeks, likely to poison French political life. The annual finance bill must be adopted and promulgated before January 1st. To do this, it must be submitted to Parliament by October 1st at the latest. Its adoption will demand delicate negotiation in the absence of a majority in the National Assembly.
The government believes that its proposal is part of a trajectory that will enable it to respect the maximum 3% deficit by 2027. To achieve this, some ministerial budgets will be unchanged and have to absorb the increase in inflation, while savings will have to be made in other areas.
Attal’s move drew disapproval from Éric Coquerel of La France Insoumise, who holds the constitutionally strategic position as chairman of the Finance Committee at the National Assembly.
“The nation’s budget is in essence a sovereign act, that of Parliament,” pointed out the MP, who denounced a confiscatory attitude on the part of a government that would normally cease to exist on July 16th. In his view, this was evidence of a government that “doesn’t really know where it’s going,” and “is in a minority in the country.”
Despite the criticism from the Left, the resigning prime minister curiously still enjoys good credit in French opinion, if we are to believe an opinion poll which claims that he would be the favourite in the hearts of the French to be the new prime minister—a candidate, therefore, for his own succession, ahead of Jordan Bardella for the RN and ahead of the centrist Xavier Bertrand.
The Rassemblement National has not yet reacted to the letters.
