Debt and public spending, Gabriel Attal
Level of public spending: Spending decrease: no spending is taboo, all administrations
Direction of change: decrease, compared with current law.
The lever. Targeted change in total public spending (State, social security, local authorities), in volume or as a share of gross domestic product. Direction rule: ↑ higher public spending.
« Pour reprendre en main nos finances publiques et notre destin, la France doit agir maintenant et agir fort. Aucune dépense ne doit être un tabou. Toutes les administrations devront participer à l’effort collectif. »1Translation by the editorsTo regain control of our public finances and our destiny, France must act now and act strongly. No spending must be taboo. All administrations will have to take part in the collective effort.
Encoding
No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.
Costing
Announced by the candidate
not announced
The programme does not cost this measure.
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
lever that cannot be costed
Direction with no target level: the level of spending is compared with the sum of the costed measures.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Public spending 2025: €1,714bn, i.e. 57.2% of GDP (57.0% in 2024); euro area 49.8%, Germany 50.5%. European norm: net primary expenditure capped at +1.2% in 2026, 2027 and 2028 and +1.1% in 2029 (Council recommendation of 21 January 2025).
Horizon. Ratio in 2032; gap with the PSMT path.
Limits. Targeted level of spending, not a measure: consistency check against the sum of costed measures. Outcome lever, not a measure lever: it serves as a consistency check against the sum of measures. Fipeco: « l'écart de 6,7 points avec l'Allemagne = 200 Md€ » [“the gap of 6.7 points with Germany = €200bn”].
- Fipeco, Définition, niveau et répartition des dépenses publiques, 2026-05-15: « En 2025, les dépenses publiques s'élèvent en France à 1 714 Md€, soit l'équivalent de 57,2 points de PIB ... Celles de l'Allemagne représentent 50,5 % de son PIB, soit un écart de 6,7 points avec la France (200 Md€ ...) »
- Sénat, L'essentiel sur le RAA 2026, 2026-04: « Recommandation du Conseil 0,8 % 1,2 % 1,2 % 1,2 % 1,1 % [2025-2029] ... Total 5,50 % »
How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.
- Programme, Dette de l'État. Read the programme page.
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