Invité ce lundi matin sur BFMTV-RMC, Éric Lombard a voulu relativiser les inquiétudes autour de la situation financière du pays. « Nous ne sommes pas du tout ruinés », a affirmé l’ancien ministre de l’Économie et des Finances, se disant « très confiant » dans la capacité de France to regain more growth.
For Éric Lombard, the main problem remains the rising cost of French debt. He believes the solution lies in a five-year budget program designed to slow the growth of public spending. "I don't believe for a second that spending will decrease; in fact, it's not necessary," he explains. His objective would rather be to increase spending less rapidly in order to gradually bring the public deficit back down to 3% of GDP.
A "republican synthesis" between social democrats and the moderate right
The former Minister of the Economy believes that such a recovery would require a broad political agreement. He mentions the possibility of a "republican synthesis" between social democrats and the moderate right, particularly on pensions, healthcare, and controlling social spending. Regarding pensions, he argues for resuming discussions with social partners after the failure of previous negotiations.
Éric Lombard therefore rejects the idea of an austerity policy based on drastic spending cuts. He advocates instead a gradual approach, stating that he had already contributed, during his time as minister, to reducing the deficit by 0,7 percentage points of GDP in a single year. For him, recovery remains possible provided there is a clear strategy and a sufficiently broad political agreement to implement it.
