With a plan to support growth, major public investment, new taxes and a limited deficit, the left-wing version of the 2025 budget is beginning to take shape.

If the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition is called upon to govern in the coming weeks, as it hopes, its leaders don't want to be caught short. In such a scenario, they would probably only have a week or two to finalize the budget bill, based on the work carried out for months by the Finance Ministry. That's why some elected officials have spent part of their summer preparing the broad outlines of a possible budget.

"We're currently working on the subject and we'll be able to make significant adjustments before the budget vote," asserted Lucie Castets, the senior Paris City Hall official whom the NFP hopes to elevate to the prime minister's office, in an interview with Libération on Tuesday, August 20.

On the spending side, the left clearly diverges from the freeze envisaged by the Macron camp or the decrease desired further to the right. "To pursue an austerity policy in the current context seems to me inappropriate and irresponsible," said Castets. "It's more a matter of dogma than economic logic."

Socialist MP Philippe Brun takes the same position. "Above all, we must not repeat the mistakes made in the early 2010s, when fiscal policy permanently undermined growth," argued Brun, a vice president of the Assemblée Nationale's Finance Committee. At the time, the right wing introduced austerity measures, and then Socialist François Hollande, once elected president, struggled to get things moving again.

Today, France is still experiencing weak growth. Despite the impact of the Olympic Games, it's expected to be limited to 1.1% in 2024, according to the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), the same as in 2023. Meanwhile, the slowdown in China, which has been driving the global economy for years, is causing concern in the rest of the world.

With a number of experts, Brun has drawn up a plan to support growth by launching a stimulus package in the next budget. This Keynesian-inspired plan, targeting investment and infrastructure, could amount to €10 billion. "Investing in the green transition, health, education, local transport – yes, we can only support that," said Green MP Christine Arrighi, enthusiastically. The proposal still has to be debated by the Socialist MPs, who will meet on August 29 for their traditional summer conference in Blois. It will also have to be brought into alignment with the positions of the NFP's other components, the radical left La France Insoumise, the Communists and the Greens, which could prove tricky given the persistent dissensions within the left, particularly on the economy.

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