Debt and public spending, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Public deficit targeted for 2032: No % target; €125bn adjustment by 2032, deficit at 5% in 2027
Direction of change: change of another kind, or uncertain direction, compared with current law.
The lever. General government deficit that the programme targets at the end of the five-year term, as a percentage of gross domestic product. Direction rule: ↑ higher targeted deficit.
« C'est donc 0,4 points de PIB, soit faire passer le déficit de 5,4% en 2026 à 5% du PIB. […] Je fais mien, en gros, d'un ajustement budgétaire nécessaire de 125 milliards d'euros d'ici 2032. […] Moi, je dirais simplement qu'il faut réduire la dette et que nous, on pense qu'on peut réduire considérablement mieux que les gouvernements les déficitent en 5 ans, au point, pourquoi pas, de faire en sorte qu'il n'y ait plus de déficit, même si ce n'est pas forcément souhaitable »1Translation by the editorsSo that is 0.4 points of GDP, that is, bringing the deficit from 5.4% in 2026 to 5% of GDP. […] I broadly make my own a necessary budgetary adjustment of 125 billion euros by 2032. […] Myself, I would simply say that debt must be reduced and that we think we can reduce deficits considerably better than the governments in 5 years, to the point, why not, of ensuring there is no longer any deficit, even if that is not necessarily desirable
Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme, Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo), 14 October 2026. Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme, tasked by the candidate with carrying the programme: they commit the candidate.
Link to the candidacy: Alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he presents the budget the candidate would have passed from 2027 through an amending finance act; he is responsible for his economic programme.
Encoding
No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.
Costing
Announced by the candidate
not announced
The cited source does not cost this measure.
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
lever that cannot be costed
Lever with no coefficient in the cost schedule: the position is compared, not costed.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Public deficit 2025: 5.1% of GDP (€152.5bn). 2026 target: 5.0%, maintained in the RAA 2026. Official path: « sous 3 % du PIB à horizon 2029 » [“below 3% of GDP by 2029”] (PSMT 2025-2029, adjustment spread over 7 years with the agreement of the Council of the EU). OFCE forecasts: 4.8% in 2026, 4.4% in 2027. No official target published for 2032.
Horizon. Level in 2032, as % of GDP, to be compared with the extended PSMT (medium-term fiscal-structural plan) path (below 3%).
Limits. Balance target, not a measure: it serves to compare the announced target with the total of costed measures. 1 point of GDP is worth about €36bn in 2032 (nominal growth assumption). It is not a cost lever as such: it is the targeted balance, which serves to test the consistency between costed measures and the announced target. The conversion into €bn in 2032 rests on a nominal GDP assumption: about €3,000bn in 2025 rising to €3,560bn to €3,680bn.
- Insee, Informations rapides n° 78, comptes des APU 2025, 2026-03-27: « Le déficit public pour 2025 s'établit à 152,5 Md€, soit 5,1 % du produit intérieur brut »
- DG Trésor, Publication du rapport d'avancement annuel 2026, 2026-04-22: « continuerait de s'améliorer pour atteindre −5,0 % du PIB ... sous 3 % du PIB à horizon 2029 »
- Fipeco, Définition, niveau et répartition des dépenses publiques, 2026-05-15: « le PIB de 2025 étant estimé à 2 995 Md€ »
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.
- Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo), 14 October 2026. Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme. Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme, tasked by the candidate with carrying the programme: they commit the candidate. Read the source (Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo)).
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