"Reversible" budget project: cuts planned for the Ministry of Labor in 2025

"There are not three billion euros in new savings," one of these government sources assured AFP, after the newspaper Le Monde revealed this amount. But "the evolution (downward, Editor's note) of three billion euros is linked to three factors," this source added.

Firstly, "the decisions taken last February" including "the cancellation of credits" have made it possible to make "more than a billion euros in savings for the Ministry of Labour", which will continue in 2025, according to this source.

Added to this, on the Health side, is the gain linked to the end of the recovery plan, which represents "more than a billion euros", according to this government source, specifying that "this is not a saving, but simply the end of the life of the recovery plan".

Finally, the ceiling letter signed by the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and addressed to Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Labor, provides for "new savings on apprenticeships". Matignon would thus like to "pursue the objective of having one million apprentices per year, but perhaps by better targeting public spending and being more efficient", it is added.

"It is the sum of these three effects that is driving this development, but there are not three billion in new savings," confirmed a government official.

Pending the appointment of a new Prime Minister and a government, Gabriel Attal last week sent the ministries the "ceiling letters" for a draft 2025 budget, with a planned volume of expenditure unchanged compared to 2024.

The fact remains that these ceiling letters are "totally reversible," ministerial sources emphasize. "We must not consider that what is in a ceiling letter is valid for what will be in the next budget, what the next government will decide."

Questioned by AFP, the resigning Minister of Labor had not reacted on Thursday afternoon.

The Finance Bill (PLF) must be submitted to Parliament by 1 October at the latest, after a series of reviews and opinions in September and before discussion in the National Assembly and then in the Senate. The Finance Bill must be published before the following 1 January.