S
ince the 2000s, France has been sinking into a budgetary drift that long remained hidden by historically low interest rates, fiscal stopgaps and reassuring rhetoric. That era is over. As we approach the end of the decade, we face a triple handicap: a massive public deficit, debt close to 120% of GDP and interest payments racing toward €100 billion per year. Doing nothing is no longer an option. To continue as we are is to accept France's decline.
In 2006, public debt hovered around 64% of GDP. Germany's debt stood at 67%. Since then, Germany has moved closer to 60%. France, to nearly 120%. The circumstances do not explain everything, since they have been the same on both sides of the Rhine river: financial and eurozone crises, the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy shock, the war in Ukraine. The French situation is the result of a political choice to never make tough decisions, to delay, to put things off until tomorrow. Tomorrow is now.
The situation is well known, thoroughly documented and indisputable. France has primarily handled its public deficit through tax hikes rather than by controlling spending. In 2025, again, with an additional €23 billion in new taxes. Economic growth remains weak, while public spending rises faster than economic activity. The inevitable increase in interest rates has shattered the illusion that France could endlessly finance its excesses at no cost. What was once a manageable interest burden has become explosive. The mechanism is relentless: The higher the debt, the heavier the interest payments and the less room there is for schools, healthcare, security, justice, environmental transition or defense.
