Valérie Pécresse proposes to cut “150,000 positions in the administration” – Le Monde

The primary on the right is accelerating. In an interview published on the Opinion, Monday, October 18, Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the nomination of the Republicans (LR) in the presidential election, proposes significant reductions of posts in the public service during the next five-year term.

“My goal is to cut 150,000 jobs in the administrative administration. The State must refocus on its three priority missions: protect, educate, care, with where necessary additional posts for justice, education and care. It is not a question of degrading the public service nor of breaking the recovery. But the expenses must go down ”, insists the president of the Ile-de-France region.

“To stop the explosion of the debt and bring it back in 2027 to the current level, we must reach 45 billion euros in savings, to which I add 15 billion in privatization revenues. The State is not intended to remain a minority shareholder in competitive companies ”, continues the candidate, who is seeking the votes of LR members during the December 4 congress against her two main rivals, Michel Barnier and Xavier Bertrand.

“If I am elected President of the Republic, my first decision will therefore be to initiate four major structural reforms to lower spending and reduce the tax burden”, she adds, listing “Retirement at 65, the degression of unemployment benefits, the” debureaucratization “of the country and decentralization with a letting go of the State to remove duplicates”.

In September, M^me Pécresse had already mentioned the reduction “In five years 10% of the administering administration, that is to say of officials who manage standards and procedures”.

A goal cherished then abandoned by Emmanuel Macron

Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Transformation and Public Service, reacted on Twitter. ” The “administering administration” ”Only exists in the interviews of Valérie Pécresse. This very vague expression reflects the lack of vision of the State on the right. It’s the return of the RGPP method: dark cuts without the effectiveness ”, she said, in an allusion to the “General review of public policies” conducted during Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term, from 2007 to 2012. In 2017, François Fillon, the defeated right-wing presidential candidate, defended the elimination of 500,000 public official positions in five years.

Emmanuel Macron, for his part, promised the elimination of 120,000 jobs, 70,000 among local authorities and 50,000 in the state civil service, a target abandoned in July 2019. The budget for 2022 confirms a stable workforce of the state civil service throughout the five-year term.

In the interview given to Opinion, M^me Pécresse also offers “Local investment aid”, in order to “Rebalance the territories. In municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, individuals will be able to invest in shares or lend to their local businesses over a minimum of five years with a 50% tax credit for a maximum investment of 20,000 euros ”, she suggests.