| France remains without a government nearly two months after the second round of snap legislative elections, leaving outgoing ministers scrambling to manage current affairs. Meanwhile, economic forecasts are rapidly deteriorating, putting France in an embarrassing and potentially dangerous situation. So precarious that the executive who is to take over the reins of the country in a few days has to most likely make some painful choices, as a matter of urgency. According to the draft budget drawn up this summer, allocations to ministries have already been frozen at €492 billion. According to a note sent on 2 September by Bruno Le Maire, the resigning minister for the economy, the public accounts deficit is expected to reach 5.6% of GDP in 2024. Just a few weeks ago, the projections were for 5.1%, and last spring for 4.9%, after peaking at 5.5% last year. For the Ministry of Finance, this is due to "the extremely rapid increase in local authority spending," particularly that of communes and departments, which could worsen public accounts, in addition to an expected fall in tax revenues, despite GDP growth estimated at 1.1% in 2024. This will further weaken French President Emmanuel Macron's political legacy. Le Maire explained this summer that his objective was to bring France's deficit below 3% by 2027, to comply with the requirements of the EU's Stability Pact. “They give economic lessons to the whole world and accuse us of wanting to impoverish France. But they are driving the country into the wall,“ said Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the far-left France Insoumise party (LFI), on X. Emmanuel Macron constantly repeats that he has no intention of raising taxes, contrary to the plans of the left-wing parties. The European Commission, on 26 July, placed France under the excessive deficit procedure, and Paris must, in theory, present a four-year plan to reduce its public deficits by 20 September. Of course, this deadline will be impossible to meet, as the office of the resigning prime minister is considering postponing tabling the Finance Bill before the National Assembly. | 