French mayors' congress rejects €11bn budget cuts slated for 2025
French mayors and local councillor associations have united to oppose proposed cuts of up to €11 billion in the 2025 draft budget proposed by Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
In a rare joint press conference on the side-lines of the 106th Congress of Mayors, local councillor associations reiterated their strong opposition to what they described as cuts amounting to between €10 and €11 billion in the proposed 2025 budget, which the government has labelled as "five billion euros of savings".
David Lisnard, President of the Association of French Mayors (AMF), said Wednesday, “We are united not to contest the principle of savings, but to say that what are presented as savings on the local authority bloc are in reality essentially deductions.”
He emphasised that local authority debt has remained “stable for 30 years” at “just under 9 percent of total GDP” and warned, “The measures proposed are recessionary measures which – in the end – will have a recessionary effect on State budget revenues.”
Posting on X, the AMF wrote: "The associations representing local authorities are calling on the government and parliament to amend the finance bill so as to re-establish the trust and dialogue with mayors and presidents of inter-municipal bodies that are essential if our country is to overcome the crisis in public finances."
Negative impact
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