The new French government wants to reduce the budget gap by 60 billion euros in 2025 and is preparing a temporary tax increase.
The new French government has announced a decision to raise taxes starting in 2025. The Minister of Finance Antoine Armand said this on RTL radio.
The draft budget for 2025 with specific proposals is to be released on October 10.
The goal of the French authorities is to reduce the budget deficit by 60 billion euros. This is partly planned to be done by cutting spending (by €40 billion) and partly by increasing budget revenues.
“As soon as we manage to cut spending significantly, we will need exceptional and temporary help from those with very high incomes,” Arman said. He assured that people with low and middle incomes will be exempt from the additional fiscal burden: “The income tax rates for those who go to work every day will not change.”
His government colleague, Laurent Saint-Martin, Minister of Budget and Financial Accounts, said on France 2 on Thursday that only 0.3% of the population will feel the tax increase – the richest households in France, those without children and earning an annual income of 500,000 euros.
The tax increase will also affect the largest companies.
Earlier this week, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier warned that the current financial situation in the country is a sword of Damocles hanging over every French citizen. “We need to act now to ensure a stable financial future for our country. Our debts exceed €3.2 trillion, and this is a situation we cannot ignore,” he said.
In September 2024, for the first time since the global financial crisis, the yield on French government bonds exceeded that of Spanish securities. The reason is that the budget deficit in France is too high.
Last year, it was 5.5% against the planned 4.9%, and this year it may reach 6%, which is much higher than the European Union’s limit of 3%. At best, France will be able to return to the target no earlier than the end of this decade.
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France and Canada have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of military materiel for Ukraine and in the field of training within the framework of the Defense Contact Group (Ramstein), in particular, they will continue to deepen strategic cooperation in the field of cyber defense in support of Ukraine, according to a declaration agreed upon during a meeting in Ottawa on September 26 by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are committed to working with Ukraine and our partners to enable Ukraine to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, both in traditional domains and in cyberspace, including by supporting the strengthening of Ukraine’s civilian cybersecurity capacity through the Tallinn Mechanism. More broadly, we will continue to discuss topics of mutual interest that were discussed during the Paris Conference on February 26, 2024,” the document, published on the Canadian government’s website, reads.
The declaration states that Canada and France have already trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation UNIFIER for Canada and the EU Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) for France. The armed forces of the two countries also continued to cooperate in training Ukrainian fighter pilots.
France will provide Ukraine with at least EUR60 million by the end of this year, according to Pierre Elbrun, the French President’s Special Envoy for Ukraine’s Relief and Recovery.
“As winter approaches, the situation is becoming critical – we must act now to quickly offer concrete energy solutions,” he wrote on social media X following a meeting of the G7+ Ministerial Group on Energy Support to Ukraine at the level of foreign ministers on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on Monday evening.
At the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken noted that the G7+ countries have mobilized more than $4 billion to support Ukraine’s energy sector since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
In a statement following the G7+ ministerial meeting, the countries welcome further commitments of funding and in-kind support to cover the most urgent needs of the Ukrainian energy sector, including repairing damaged power plants and district heating systems, deploying new, distributed energy sources, emergency backup power for critical services, and passive protection of energy infrastructure.
France will use EUR300 million in 2024 to purchase weapons for Ukraine, part of the EUR1.4 billion in proceeds from frozen Russian assets allocated by the European Union, the French Defense Ministry said.
“The European Commission has agreed with the Directorate General for Armaments that it will use these funds to quickly acquire priority equipment for Ukraine from the French industry, ammunition, artillery and air defense equipment from the French industry for a total of 300 million for 2024,” the ministry said in a communique published on Friday.
Earlier, EU Diplomacy Chief Josep Borrell said that the EU has already begun to transfer the proceeds of Russia’s frozen assets to the Ukrainian side and the bloc countries that will supply Kyiv with weapons.
The Crisis and Support Center (CDCS) of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed over 28 generators to a school in Chernihiv, Ambassador of the French Republic to Ukraine Gael Weissier said after a visit to Chernihiv.
“A new trip to Chernihiv, a priority region, where, together with the head of the regional state administration and Expertise France, we signed agreements with three hospitals, inspected the repair of the roof of the theater that was hit on 19/08/23, and handed over assistance from the Centre de Crise et de Soutien in the form of 28 generators to be used in a local school,” the ambassador wrote on social network X.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has chosen the French Alps to host the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
“IOC President Thomas Bach said that the delegation that presented the French Alps’ bid reaffirmed its full commitment to the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. France is always raising the bar for excellence in organizing sporting events. Therefore, it is necessary to support their model of the future: innovative, ambitious, environmentally friendly and accessible to all,” the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC) said in a statement.
It is noted that the IOC is confident that France will organize the Winter Olympics with the same creativity and sophistication that is already being seen in Paris.
According to the report, this is the fourth Winter Olympics hosted by France. In 1924, the Olympics were held in Chamonix, in 1968 in Grenoble, and in 1992 in Albertville.
