2024-12-04 23:50:00
Local authorities’ budget suspended after the vote on the motion of censure
The government’s censure motion adopted by the National Assembly on Wednesday evening protects, for the moment, local authorities from the 5 billion euro cuts that affect them, foreseen in the 2025 budget.
In the absence of a 2025 budget adopted before December 31, which is likely, MPs could vote on a law under which local governments would maintain last year’s budget. Communities have until April 15 to vote on their budget. A respite rather than a real relief.
“For the moment we are preparing our financial statements in a totally chaotic context and, for accounting prudence, we are forced to use the most unfavorable budget assumptions”The president of the Association of French Mayors (AMF), David Lisnard (Les Républicains), explained this to Agence France-Presse.
Even without a financial law,municipalities will have to apply the increase in pension contributions from local employers,equal to approximately 1.1 billion euros for 2025, a measure that will simply be the subject of a decree. A new finance law is due to be presented at the beginning of 2025.
“The new government will have to propose a fairly profoundly modified budget if it wants to overcome the obstacle of the National Assembly”commented André Laignel (Socialist Party), first vice-president of the AMF. “It is indeed clear that the fog we find ourselves in risks weighing heavily on communities’ investment decisions”also warns.
“after the breakup it was challenging to have a clearer horizon. This is not conducive to the creation of projects”considers the president of the Association of Small Towns of France, Christophe bouillon, not very optimistic about the future. “It was at the request of Europe that we tried to save money, so we are not out of the bitter potion yet”summarizes, fearing the effects of an institutional block on the local economic fabric.
On the inter-municipal side, their president, Sébastien Martin, also believes that if French interest rates increased, “The State will have to allocate additional resources to repay its debt”. “It would surprise me if community funding was spared”observe.