World News: The Staggering French Welfare State is Facing the Guillotine

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Monday, 13 October 2025 11:10

Written by Olivier Longhi

The instability of the Macron Government has again been highlighted by his reappointment of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who was appointed, then resigned and now reappointed, as calls for the French President’s resignation echo . . . loudly. 

The debt equation posed to the Prime Minister is proving impossible to resolve in view of the social needs to be satisfied and unless the current Welfare State is sacrificed for an identical system but clearly articulating other priorities and providing another choice of society. 

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Barely appointed, already threatened to the point of faltering even before having been able to take possession of any ministry, the new or former new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu must, without fail and as soon as possible, propose a budget to the national representation.

Since each minute that passes only reinforces the urgency of the matter, the budget in question must preserve the Welfare State without increasing the debt while repaying it and without this weighing on households and the economic environment sensitive to any increase or decrease in taxes. This is the Herculean challenge, the equation with multiple unknowns, of the Prime Minister who seems, without insulting his person, overwhelmed by the task just as others would be in the face of such constraints.

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Growth and Restriction

Because the question that arises is not so much that of the debt, the interest on it or the economic environment as that of the Welfare State as it was conceived in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Inspired by Keynesia, the French welfare state has long been based on sustained economic and demographic growth. However, to date, neither of them is there, making the equation all the more impossible while the French are very attached to this system which plays a significant role as a social and economic shock absorber (Social aid represented 30 billion euros in 2024; aid to private companies 200 billion euros - 200 billion:  the exorbitant cost of public aid to companies - insubordination).

And some are crying out for the need to engage in a policy of budgetary restraint by limiting spending. Surely. But which ones? Others are calling for an increase in taxes as a whole, at the risk of breaking the weak economic growth, but for the benefit of local authorities whose finances have dried up since the abolition of the housing tax.

The reality that prevails, however, is quite different. Without saying it, but thinking it so hard that everyone hears it, the horse cure that could restore patient France is such that it would undoubtedly provoke demonstrations on an unprecedented scale to protest against measures aimed at restoring public accounts.

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Rise and Spending

If the priority is to save the Welfare State, without demagoguery or excessive severity, then indeed a combined increase in overall taxation and a reduction in spending with the final objective of spending less but better is indeed on the horizon. Technically the method is feasible, humanly it would explode social situations with cruel consequences.

Rethinking the Welfare State is therefore perhaps one of the first tasks to be accomplished, by redefining its priorities and making citizens too accustomed to the blind support of the State responsible. And if the liberal-capitalist model that prevails to this day were to always be preserved and articulated around the question of growth, the only engine fueling the Welfare State, then more than a debt or interest to be repaid, it is a societal choice that is imposed on France. And it will not be without pain or rupture.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.