Déchiffrer 2027

FREN

Debt and public spending, Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Handling of the debt: Cancel French debt held by the ECB; €25bn to reduce it in 2027

Direction of change: decrease, compared with current law.

The lever. What the programme plans for public debt: repayment, ring-fencing, buyback or cancellation by the central bank, restructuring. Direction rule: ↑ higher targeted debt; ↓: debt reduced.

« Ainsi, lorsque nous parlons d'abroger la dette française dans les caisses de la BCE, qui est de l'argent que nous nous devons à nous-mêmes […] Premier outil, la question de la dette française à la BCE. J'insiste sur le fait qu'il s'agit d'un pur effet comptable, d'un trait à rayer. […] De manière symbolique, mais parlante, nous avons décidé que dans ce budget, il y aurait 25 milliards, celui que nous présentons, attribués à la diminution de la dette. »1

Translation by the editorsSo, when we talk about repealing the French debt in the ECB's coffers, which is money we owe to ourselves […] First tool, the question of French debt at the ECB. I insist on the fact that this is purely an accounting effect, a line to be struck out. […] In a symbolic but telling way, we decided that in this budget, the one we are presenting, there would be 25 billion allocated to reducing the debt.

Words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo), 14 October 2026. Position taken from public statements, not from a written 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 debt (Maastricht) at end-2025: €3,460.5bn, i.e. 115.6% of GDP. OFCE forecasts: 118.3% in 2026, 119.8% in 2027. General government interest charges: €64.7bn in 2025, i.e. 2.2% of GDP (OFCE: 2.4% in 2026, 2.6% in 2027). Average maturity of State debt: 8.5 years (April 2026).

Horizon. Not applicable in static costing; sensitivity given as a benchmark.

Limits. The « traitement » (treatment) of the debt (cancellation of securities held by the Banque de France, restructuring, ring-fencing, forced loan) is a matter of European law and market confidence: it is not costed statically. Sensitivity benchmark: +100 basis points across the whole yield curve add €3.1bn of interest charges in the 1st year, €7.5bn in the 2nd, €18.4bn in the 5th, €32.1bn in the 10th (negotiable State debt); +1 point of inflation adds €3.0bn (index-linked securities). To be used to assess the effect of a programme on the risk premium, separately from the central figure.

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.

This lever in the method · Costing for Jean-Luc Mélenchon

  1. Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo), 14 October 2026. Words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme. Read the source (Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo)).

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