A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #348 - 10 billion euros in savings: Bleeding public services for the benefit of capitalist vampires (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In mid-February, Bruno Le Maire announced live on TF1, ten billion 
savings "on the State, not on the French". Translation of this 
neoliberal newspeak: it is the protective public services which will 
suffer the bleeding, the bourgeoisie and their watchdogs will be spared 
by the economies. But by the way, what does ten billion savings 
represent exactly? ---- On December 21, the State budget for 2024 was 
adopted in the National Assembly, after the rejection of yet another 
motion of censure from the left. To pass this budget and that of the 
Social security, adopted at the beginning of December, the government 
has used the famous article 49.3 to the limit... ten times! But it must 
be said that the game was worth it since, according to Élisabeth Borne, 
then Prime Minister, it was no less a question of defending the creation 
of "more than 2,000 police and gendarmerie posts, an increase in the 
means of justice and defense, upgrades for teachers and a "green budget" 
with an additional seven billion euros in favor of the ecological 
transition » [1]. This budget was built on a growth forecast (as we 
would say in Les Échos) of 1.4%, at least this is the figure that was 
presented by the Ministry for the Protection of the Interests of the 
Bourgeoisie, also called the Ministry of economy and finance. It doesn't 
matter that these estimates are clearly out of step with what 
international organizations predicted for France, the important thing 
was to sell us the dream of growth.

Once the budget was voted on, it would be necessary to backpedal, 
because in fact the growth estimates are now estimated at 1% of GDP. No 
matter, Bruno Le Maire is responsible for the announcement on the 8 p.m. 
news on TF1 in the mode "growth is slowing down all over the 
world[...]this has an impact on French growth", but straight in his 
boots he assures that "French growth is holding up better than other 
major developed countries" and above all that nothing would be "asked of 
the French", which should be translated as: no tax increases for the 
richest, and that the economies will be made "exclusively from the state 
budget", which should be translated as: we will not ask anything from 
companies. Result: 10 billion in savings in 2024 and 20 billion in 2025 
to be found mainly in ecology, health, social and education budgets.

690 million euros on the National Education budget
If the figures are impressive, they ultimately remain of little 
significance as we struggle to embody these sums, the materiality of 
which is difficult to grasp. The collective Our public services [2], a 
collective of civil servants whose particular aim is to "uncover and act 
against the institutionalized dysfunctions of our administrations", 
dissected the decree published on February 22 "detailing the budgetary 
savings measures" . Taking government data sector by sector, it allows 
us to see concretely what 10 billion savings are essentially supported 
by sectors essential to the working classes.

The largest share of savings will be made on "ecology, sustainable 
development and mobility" policies, 2 billion 460 million. Logical when 
we know the seriousness of the environmental crisis! 1 billion savings 
in terms of energy renovation corresponds concretely to giving up 
renovating between 100,000 and 150,000 homes, which represents the 
number of homes in a city like Rennes or Lille. Knowing that according 
to the Energy Poverty Observatory, "26% of households suffered from the 
cold at home during the winter of 2022-2023"[3], single-parent families 
and large families are the first to be affected. Another saving on 
ecological policies: 500 million reduction in the Fund for accelerating 
the ecological transition in the territories (known as the "Green 
Fund"), which represents the non-renovation of 48 colleges (but let us 
reassure Stanislas or the 'Alsatian school everything is fine!).

The forces of "order" spared by economies
Second sector particularly targeted by these economies which do not 
"touch the French", teaching and research which will have to contribute 
to the tune of 1,590 million euros! Concerning education, the 690 
million euros in savings represents concretely the equivalent of the 
elimination of 436 primary schools, 54 middle schools and the end of 
support for 14,000 students with disabilities! As a reminder, between 
the 2023 and 2024 budgets, funding, through our taxes, of private 
education, 75% financed by public funds, increased from 8.468 billion to 
9.35 billion. It just goes to show that if we looked carefully we could 
have found savings margins! Research is also being bled with a drop of 
900 million euros in its budget, which concretely represents, as a 
choice: the elimination of funding for 1,500 research projects or the 
elimination of a third of courses for each student and enrolled in a 
bachelor's degree.

On the other hand, we are only asking for 232 million euros in savings 
from Security (police and army), we can bet that the more than 78 
million euros in purchases of grenades for "maintaining order"[4], the 
largest order in more than ten years, will undoubtedly not be impacted 
by the savings.

Attacking public services means attacking the most precarious
While capital income increases out of all proportion to that of 
labor[5], it is therefore on the popular classes that the "efforts" will 
weigh and during this time we do not touch the real beneficiaries: the 
capitalists. "Support for the economy" will only see its budget 
encumbered by 220 million, which is nothing compared to all aid to 
businesses which was more than 157 billion in 2019, or "the equivalent 
of 6 .4% of GDP (8.5% if we add the declassified niches) or even more 
than 30% of the state budget (41% with the declassified) » [6]according 
to the IRES (Institut de economic and social research) [7]. In 2023, the 
income of the largest capitalizations of the CAC 40 exploded: 153.6 
billion euros in profits, 67.8 billion euros in dividends paid and 30.1 
billion in share buybacks for the year 2023[8], but no one at Bercy 
seems to have thought of scraping away a few billion on this side.

The "savings" measures are precisely targeted at services that benefit 
the most precarious among us. We must defend our public services against 
the State which is only the expression of the interests of capitalists. 
As such, the massive renewable strike movement which has been affecting 
the schools of 93 for four weeks now shows us the way. Without 
resignation and with determination, civil servants and users of public 
services must defend our common good against the "institutionalized 
dysfunctions of our administrations" and their privatization. Let's 
remember that when everything is private, we will be deprived of everything!

David (UCL Savoies)

To validate

[1]"The 2024 budget definitively adopted by Parliament", Le Monde, 
December 21, 2023.

[2]See their website Nosservicespublics.fr.

[3]"Key figures on energy poverty (March 2023 edition)", Onpe.org.

[4]"Maintaining order: France buys more than 78 million euros in 
grenades", Politis, November 10, 2023.

[5]"Between 2021 and 2022 the total amount of income declared by those 
liable for the IFI increased by 31.7% among households taxed with the 
IFI compared to 5.7% among other households" notes the Observatory of 
tax justice, "Who pays the real estate wealth tax?», 
Obs-justice-fiscale.attac.org, February 3, 2024.

[6]"The exorbitant cost of business aid", Alternatives économique, 
January 21, 2023.

[7]In its May 2022 report, Capitalism on a drip: Measurement, theories 
and macroeconomic effects of public aid to French businesses, the IRES 
rightly recalled with regard to business aid that "Christopher Howard 
already proposed in 1997 that expression hidden welfare state, which 
could be updated by adding in favor of companies, literally "a hidden 
welfare state in favor of companies", "Measurement, theories and 
macroeconomic effects of public aid to French companies", May 2022, Ires.fr.

[8]"Billions of euros in profits and dividends, a record year for CAC 40 
companies", Le Monde, March 7, 2024.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Saigner-les-services-publics-au-profit-des-vampires-capitalistes
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