What is the "blank year," a path being studied by the government to make savings?

François Bayrou's government continues to explore the possibility of a "blank year" to reduce public deficits . The aim of this measure is to limit public spending by aligning it for the coming year (2026) with that of the current year (2025), as if there were 0% inflation next year. Normally, spending is aligned with price increases.

This spending freeze may be limited to ministry spending, but it may also extend to local government spending, social benefits (pensions, for example) and the income tax scale.

This means that the threshold at which consumers pay income tax remains unchanged, but as incomes increase, they will pay more taxes. Extended to all expenses, the tax-free year would generate up to €25 billion of the €40 billion sought by the Ministry of Finance.

But it's not a miracle cure. It represents, first of all, a severe austerity cure for the French, as in 2014, or even as much as in 1983. The freeze is also not possible everywhere, particularly for items subject to multi-year programming laws such as Defense, Justice, and Research.

This means that savings would be necessary in addition to the gap year to meet the 40 billion target. Especially since the State has no control over local government budget choices.

Certain issues could therefore quickly become explosive. The government could alienate pensioners, taxpayers, and even civil servants if the index point is frozen.

Nor is it a miracle cure for the deterioration of our public finances, since the government has not carried out any structural reforms that would allow us to spend less in the long term.