In his first address to the French parliament, the new prime minister, Michel Barnier, has said “colossal” debt is a financial “sword of Damocles” hanging over the country, requiring cuts in public spending and tax increases.
In an hour-long inaugural address, Barnier was alternately heckled and applauded as he outlined his minority government’s political programme in the national assembly, which remains deeply divided. The lower house is split between three political blocs, none of which emerged with a majority after June’s snap general election.
“The government will not perform miracles … we will overcome each obstacle step by step,” Barnier said.
He said the biggest challenge was France’s public debt, which had reached €3.2tn, meaning repayments were now the government’s second biggest cost behind education and higher than the amount spent on defence.
“The real sword of Damocles is our colossal debt,” Barnier said. “If we’re not careful, it will take our country to the edge of the precipice.”
There were shouts and boos as he said spending cuts would be the government’s priority.
While acknowledging that France’s taxes were “among the highest in the world”, Barnier said his government would be demanding “an exceptional contribution” from profitable medium-sized and large companies and “an effort from the most wealthy”. This would be accompanied by a clampdown on “social and fiscal fraud”, he said. He did not give details of specific cuts.
The EU has urged France to reduce its deficit, which is more than 6% of its gross domestic product (GDP), well above the 5% maximum suggested by Brussels. Barnier promised that the government would reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025 and to 3% by 2029.
“We cannot spend more; we must spend better,” he told MPs. “Often our citizens think they are not getting enough from their taxes.”
He said a second Damoclean sword was “ecological debt” and he pledged investment in new nuclear reactors and in renewable energy.
He also announced policies to address shortages of housing and of doctors in rural areas, and pledged to toughen immigration laws, clamp down on trafficking of drugs and people, increase the number of police and gendarmes on the streets and speed up the legal system with “short immediate sentences” for certain offences.
Concluding his discourse outlining the general “roadmap” for the next two and half years, he urged political forces to work together. “Take care of the republic, it is fragile. Take care of Europe, it is necessary. Take care of France and the French who demand that we overcome our differences and act in the superior interests of the country,” he said.
Barnier, 73, was appointed as prime minister almost a month ago. He is a member of the rightwing Les Républicains party that won only 47 seats in the 577-seat assembly after a snap election called by Emmanuel Macron in June that resulted in a hung parliament.
Barnier and his new ministers, most of whom come from the conservative right, have been accused of pandering to the far-right National Rally (RN), which won the most seats and is seen as having a sway over the government policy.
His government faces threats of no-confidence motions from opposite ends of the political spectrum: the RN and the left-wing alliance the New Popular Front (NFP) have each threatened to lodge a censure motion, which would be unlikely to pass without the support of the other.
In response to Barnier’s speech, the RN’s Marine Le Pen said the party had its “red lines” and it would oppose tax increases that hit the working class and any failure to address immigration with a new “restrictive” law. She said any public spending cuts should include a reduction in the country’s notorious bureaucracy, particularly in hospitals, schools and government departments.
The parliamentary session opened with a minute’s silence for a student named only as Philippine, 19, allegedly killed by a 22-year-old man of Moroccan nationality who had been previously convicted of rape and was subject to an order to leave France.