The French now consider more urgent to reduce public spending than to increase them, according to a Kantar public survey.
by elsa conesa
Magic money no longer has its euphoric effect. The French now consider more urgent to reduce public spending than to increase them, according to a Kantar Public survey conducted in nine countries and published Thursday, December 15. They are also among the least inclined to favor household support measures in the face of inflation, if this must be done at the expense of the recovery of public finances.
In a context marked by the energy crisis, coupled with the diffuse feeling of a continuous degradation of the quality of public services, more than a third of French people (34 %) estimate that the economy would benefit more Decreased in public spending that an increase (24 %), while almost half of them (44 %) are not pronounced or argue for the status quo. The survey was carried out with 11,970 participants aged 15 and over, from November 17 to December 9.
“These results are interesting because they surprise, comments Emmanuel Rivière, international director for political studies at the Kantar Public Institute. When we put in parallel the efforts to be made to support households in the crisis with the consequences of these Measures on public accounts, there is a form of vigilance among the French. ”
A result radically opposed to that which is observed in countries yet perceived as more frugal, as the Netherlands or even Singapore, where the need to spend more clearly prevails over that of reducing spending – which is explained , in part, by the largest room for budgetary maneuver available to these states, explains the analyst. Conversely, more indebted countries, such as Spain or France, show a marked concern around questions of public finance and deficit.
a crisis of energy perceived as sustainable
Faced with inflation, the “whatever it costs”, which had won membership during COVID-19, is therefore no longer a stake. To support the economy in the face of the pandemic then to the energy crisis, the public authorities have mobilized considerable sums since 2020 – more than 150 billion euros for the COVVI -19, then 110 billion to compensate for the effects of inflation. “During the covid, we opposed public money to health and work, specifies Emmanuel Rivière. There, arbitration is money to compensate for money.”
This evolution, in an opinion which placed debt at the penultimate rank of its concerns in the polls during the campaign for the presidential election, is explained by real concern about the gravity of the energy crisis , perceived as sustainable and more damaging for the economy than that of COVID-19. “[It] is perceived as more serious, because of a more important feeling of degradation,” adds Mr. Rivière.
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