France Protests Highlight Strain on Public Finances and Services
Hundreds of thousands marched across France on Saturday over underfunded schools, rising living costs and pressure on public services. The protests have also…
Economists say France’s protests point to a growing strain between public needs and government finances. Hundreds of thousands joined weekend demonstrations across the country, marching on Saturday over underfunded schools as concerns about rising living costs and public services widened.
The protests bring immediate pressure on the government to address complaints about teacher shortages and deteriorating school infrastructure. They also reflect broader household concerns as people struggle with high and rising prices, according to The Guardian.
Luke Hartigan, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Sydney, said there was no single cause behind the discontent in France. He pointed to soaring energy costs as a major factor.
Fuel prices in France are up 36% this year, three times the increase in Australia, the report said. It attributed the rise in European gas prices to the US-Israel war on Iran as the northern hemisphere approaches winter.
France protests expose pressure on public finances
Hartigan said France’s high public debt, stagnant economy and universal social security benefits had created a clash between demands for better services and cost-of-living support, and the country’s worsening fiscal position.
France has not balanced its budget since 1974. Total public debt has risen to nearly 120% of the economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The Guardian’s report compared that figure with Australia’s total government debt, which it put at 53%. A decade earlier, Australia’s debt was 40% of GDP; a decade before that, it was just under 10%.
The gap matters because public demands can grow even as governments face limits on what they can spend. For households, the tension is visible in the issues driving the demonstrations: school services, living costs and access to support.
“If you think about trajectories, they [France’s challenges] give us an idea of where we could potentially be if we continue down this path,” Hartigan said, referring to Australia’s need to improve productivity.
Bob Breunig, director of the ANU’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, said voters increasingly expect governments to solve problems that politicians may not be able to address.
“One thing that is happening everywhere is this narrative that the government should be able to solve all your problems, and that narrative has probably been pushed further in Europe than it has here. It’s failing in both places, but it’s pointier there than here,” Breunig said.
French public spending now accounts for 58% of the economy, according to IMF data cited by The Guardian. Australia’s total public spending is equivalent to 40% of national output, the highest level in data stretching back to 1990 outside the pandemic, the report said.
“All these protesters are asking the government to help them out, but the government has maxxed out the credit card,” Breunig said. He described France’s debt as “reaching levels that are unmanageable”.
“The federal government here can still borrow and has a lot of flexibility, and the French just have no money,” he said.
In a separate report published by Al Jazeera, authorities said 550,000 people protested across France on a Saturday, including 110,000 in Paris. That report described a demonstration led by students seeking education reforms that broadened into anger over public services, living costs and uncertain prospects.
Clashes broke out in Paris between police and some protesters, Al Jazeera reported. Officers used tear gas, while protesters threw firework mortars and set a car and a newspaper stand on fire; the report said the vast majority joined the march peacefully.
The Guardian report said President Emmanuel Macron’s decade in power had included unsuccessful attempts to rein in spending. Breunig said, “There’s a real sense that people don’t know what to do.”
France’s public spending accounts for 58% of its economy, according to the IMF data cited in the report.
Source: theguardian.com
