François Bayrou, debt and morality

Since the end of August, François Bayrou has been preachable at the dawn of the Last Judgment. The Prime Minister asked the National Assembly a vote of trust on September 8 to approve the principle of a plan of 43.8 billion euros in savings in 2026. Its objective: to reduce the French public debt which today reaches 3,346 billion euros, or 114 % of GDP*. “The hold takes the water” alerted the head of government on August 31 on television. He repeats, France is so indebted that his difficulties is a moral fault. In December 2024, he already sounded the apocalypse trumpets by declaring before the deputies not being able to “pass (…) in silence the cowardice which is ours to maintain our current expenses by borrowing on the back of future generations”.

However, if the majority of the hemicycle votes against confidence, the government will have to resign. As a clever politician, François Bayrou forces his political opponents to position himself on an ethical choice. On August 26, he declared to the CFDT summer university that the deputies only had a few days to place themselves “on the side of chaos or responsibility”. But can we really use the register of morality to defend an economic policy?

“The question of public debt is necessarily moral because this process allows us to make society,” replies Nathalie Sarthou-Lajus, philosopher and author of the test Debt praise . In fact, the State perpetually borrows from banks and financial companies to operate hospitals, schools, and other services essential to our collective life. “François Bayrou rightly stresses that debt is not just a financial issue but commits deep society choices,” continues Nathalie Sarthou-Lajus.

Coming from the current of thought of Christian Democrats, the Prime Minister has a political identity imbued with religious references. Like the philosophy of the personalism of Emmanuel Mounier and Jacques Maritain who calls each citizen to a feeling of responsibility for the common good. In this vein, François Bayrou considers that we all have a share of responsibility in the public deficit and affirms that “debt is each of us”. France would be “like a very indebted family” which is preparing to bequeath a burden at its descendants.

But comparison with a household is not entirely valid because, unlike a family, the state is almost immortal. He “rolls his debt”, that is to say that he reimburses deadlines by contracting new loans, and his interest rate is low because the markets consider that France has little risk of being insolvent.

Everyone has their philosophy

This well -controlled cycle gives the state of means to invest and run the economy. But it can become hellish. Today, the French deficit is widening and the less confident investors are asking for higher interest rates. The State must devote an increasingly important part to the payment of the interests of its debt, so that in 2025 it represents approximately 9.5 % of the state budget*. Or 55 billion euros which cannot be released to build the future of the country.

To rebalance the accounts, the head of government wants to freeze social benefits, remove two holidays or reform unemployment insurance. “He hopes to close the debate by appealing to our moral sense,” concludes Patrick Savidan, professor of philosophy at Panthéon-Assas University. But his opponents will reopen it with their own moral arguments. Who should pay the debt? Is it fair to rest a large part on the most precarious? Faced with too many opponents, the government could fall well on September 8. But François Bayrou will have at least built the story of his departure. Like a prophet, he claims his truth but is not heard.