Drastic savings. While the government promises 40 billion in austerity from 2025half of which would come from budget cuts in State and Social Security funds, the budget of local authorities should also be in the front line. Following on from Michel Barnier’s speech, who announced that he wanted to find 5 billion savings in the budgets of local authorities (municipalities, departments and regions), the Court of Auditors was quick to propose tracks : drop in revenue, supervision of local projects and above all the elimination of 100,000 positions.
Massive job cuts and reduction in community resources
The report from the Court of Auditors envisages a massive reduction in the number of local agents by proposing the elimination of 100,000 positions. A progressive elimination which, according to the authority, would allow savings of 4.1 billion per year from 2030. Behind the “accounting” argument, such a decision, if it were to be applied, would drastically accentuate the already significant understaffing. in all different sectors as well as the deterioration of services provided to users. And all the more so since, in addition to job cuts, the report proposes extending the duration of working hours over legal hours. An attack prepared by the XXL offensive of the Civil Service reform led by Macron in 2019 which had established the principle of a compulsory return to 1607 annual hours, and whose implementation the Court of Auditors intends to impose in communities who have not yet done so while reducing honorary overtime service. Attacks that the Court of Auditors intends to accompany a fight against “absenteeism”, i.e. an additional turn of the screw towards agents and which is part of the same logic as a previous report recommending the extension of working days. deficiencies for civil servants.
In addition to advocating a massive size in the workforce, the report proposes a reduction in funds allocated to communities through several systems. The first would be to reduce community revenues in order to push them to implement austerity policies to get back on track. The second would be to put in place new contracts between the State and the largest communities in order to “ control the evolution of their operating expenses “. These contracts would allow the State to have direct leverage to sanction communities that do not respect budgetary limits while directing their investments. An idea taken up yesterday by Michel Barnier in his speech to the assembly. And so many measures which would have the indirect aim of bending communities to an austerity policy through inevitable budget cuts. A policy which would primarily impact the financing of public services and which could be accompanied by xenophobic and anti-social policies already existing in many territories, such as the closure of social centers, the non-creation of social housing or even the lack of support for unaccompanied minors
A series of government offensives against public services
The measures proposed in the report of the Court of Auditors set the tone for the potential attacks that the Barnier government could use to find the 5 billion that it intends to steal from the budget of local authorities. But the issue of budget cuts and attacks on civil servants will not stop with communities. The Barnier government has already announced budget cuts in the various public service budgets as well as the reduction in civil service staff numbers without providing further information. Announcements that must be coupled with the decision to appoint the ultra-liberal Guillaume Kasbarian as head of the Ministry of Civil Service, which suggests major attacks against workers.
While public services are in decline on a national scale like the health sector, it is not by offering retirees to resume some service as recommended by our Prime Minister that things will get better. On the contrary, it is a massive investment in public services that we need, in conjunction with users and based on local issues. An investment which must be accompanied by a real hiring plan in the different sectors to respond to the chronic understaffing experienced by civil servants. So many measures which can only be carried out by the implementation of an offensive battle plan which seeks to unify all sectors of the Civil Service to put an end to the government’s offensives, the destruction of public services and to pay for the crisis to big fortunes and employers.
