Thirty minutes of interview… for very few announcements. Gabriel Attal was the guest of the TF1 news this Wednesday evening, while the government is looking for savings after the public deficit skidded to 5.5% of GDP in 2023, or 15.8 billion euros more than government forecasts.
Duration of unemployment insurance compensation, increase in taxes, reduction in social security contributions… What options does the Prime Minister seem to favor? We gave you a recap of Gabriel Attal’s main statements this Wednesday evening during his interview on TF1 news.
On unemployment insurance
On the set of TF1, Gabriel Attal announced a reform of unemployment insurance “within the year”. He explained that he had asked his Minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin “to prepare new negotiations” on unemployment insurance. He mentioned several options, including reducing the duration of compensation “by several months”. Currently a French person can receive unemployment insurance for eighteen months. “One of the options is to reduce this duration of compensation by several months” but “I don’t think it should go below 12 months,” he declared.
He also mentioned the working time necessary to benefit from unemployment. Today, you must have worked six months over the last two years. “Here too, we can imagine either saying we need to work more over the last 24 months or saying that the six months are assessed over a shorter period, no longer 24 months but for example 18 months,” he added. .
“The third lever is the level of unemployment compensation, how much you receive and how it falls to encourage you to return to work. This is one of the avenues that I prefer less than the others, but we will let the social partners work. »
In terms of calendar, Gabriel Attal expressed his wish to have the parameters of this reform “in the summer”, “so that it can come into force by the fall. »
On increasing taxes
Gabriel Attal recalled his “two red lines” on the increase in French taxes. “First red line: do not increase taxes on the middle classes. » He then announced his desire not to increase taxes on businesses. “Second red line: I will not increase taxes for what allows the work of the French to be financed,” he continued before adding “Who allows the French to work? It’s still, above all, businesses. »
To justify his decisions, the Prime Minister explained: “What makes it possible to have revenue? Either you say to yourself you are increasing tax rates. Either you say to yourself, we make sure that there are more people working to have additional income. Each time an additional French person works, he will pay contributions, as will his employer. So the objective remains to achieve full employment because that allows us to increase revenue. »
On social contributions
To “de-emcardise” France, the Prime Minister would like to “review the system of contribution reductions” so that this encourages “more to increase” low salaries.
“We have a system which means that, in fact, there is no longer much interest for anyone to increase employees who are on the minimum wage. It costs the employer very dearly, the minimum wage employee will ultimately earn less,” the Prime Minister explained on TF1. “We must have reductions in contributions which provide more incentive for employees to increase their salary,” he insisted, indicating that he had entrusted a mission “to two economists who will make proposals to you in June on the subject”.