“We don’t want to touch the ALD”: Bruno Le Maire reassures on the means to reduce the deficit

2024-03-31 04:54:15

“An essential pillar of solidarity” which should not move. Bruno Le Maire assures that he will not touch the treatment of long-term illnesses to find savings following the announcement of the deficit slipping in 2023, but evokes a new form of contract for workers over 55 years old .

“We therefore do not want to touch ALD”, which are “an essential pillar of solidarity”, declared the Minister of Economy and Finance on Saturday in an interview with the daily Ouest-France. “But it is precisely because we want to protect these sick people – there are twelve million of them – that we must think more generally regarding the financing of our social model,” said the minister, emphasizing the “choices” to be made.

The Minister for Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, said on Friday that he was “open” to all proposals to find savings. Bruno Le Maire wonders regarding compensation for unemployed seniors: “Is it really relevant that those over 55 have a longer duration of compensation? Isn’t this a way of transforming unemployment insurance into disguised retirement? “.

He proposes “a contract in which seniors would work 80% of their time, receive 90% of their salary and be entitled to 100% of their pension”. Asked regarding the support for this system, he replied: “I am in favor of cost sharing”, adding that “companies have a particular responsibility to exercise”.

A reform of daily allowances

The minister also mentions a reform of daily allowances while “sick leave has increased by 10% since Covid”, thus wanting to open the debate “from this year in order to fight once morest abuse”, in “a principle of justice vis-à-vis towards those who work.

Asked regarding the possibility of seeing pensions and social benefits revalued once more according to inflation in 2025, the minister replied that “this will be decided during the 2025 budget”. “The question on the table at the moment is the additional savings necessary in 2024 to guarantee falling below the 3% deficit in 2027,” he explains.

On Tuesday, INSEE revealed that France’s public deficit had soared to 5.5% of GDP in 2023, compared to 4.9% expected by the government. “The geopolitical situation has changed. I will therefore present the new deficit and debt forecasts within ten days, during the presentation of the stability program to the Council of Ministers,” Bruno Le Maire indicated in the interview.

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