“We only talk about tax madness when we touch on taxes that concern the richest,” points out Ian Brossat, PCF senator from Paris

Just like the common base parties, the French Communist Party should not vote as it stands on the text of the revenue part of the 2026 budget, says this Wednesday morning in “La Matinale” Ian Brossat, who deplores “an austerity budget” who doesn’t come back “the 211 billion euros in unrequited public aid to businesses paid each year.”

This text corresponds to the transcription of part of the interview above. Click on the video to watch the interview in full.

Alix Bouilhaguet: The budget continues its parliamentary journey. The common core groups will not vote on the revenue side of the finance bill, a vote which should normally take place before Sunday. They argue the insincerity of certain measures adopted. What will the communist deputies do?

Ian Brossat: I don’t think we’ll vote for it either. The reality is that, despite a certain number of advances obtained by the left, it is a budget marked by austerity, a budget which requires sacrifices.

An austerity budget?

Yes, it is a budget which requires additional sacrifices from the most modest and above all does not allow, for example, to call into question the 211 billion euros in unrequited public aid to businesses paid each year. Typically, if we wanted to restore justice in this country, we would have to call into question this unrequited public aid. It is unacceptable for us to continue to pay billions of euros in public aid to companies which sometimes lay off people, do tax optimization or relocate. This is an injustice that needs to be addressed. And for the moment, we cannot say that this budget addresses it.

Some taxes voted by MPs will never even be applied. This is what Sébastien Lecornu says. He is thinking in particular of the tax on multinationals which should perhaps eventually bring in 26 billion. He also referred the matter to the Council of State. Is this a way of clarifying things or is it parliamentary contempt? This is what some of his opponents say.

It is an absolute denial of democracy and a form of cynicism established as a method. Here is a Prime Minister who says that we are going to let this tax pass and then, in any case, we will appeal to the Council of State and we will get rid of it.

The Council of State is not political. This is a court that is supposed to actually shed light on what is constitutional.

Of course. And I will not contest the role of the Council of State. Simply, the Prime Minister let all that go and he comes in afterwards saying: “Anyway, don’t worry, all that will eventually disappear from the final copy.” So yes, all of that is cynicism, it’s not serious. The only thing that matters to us, the communist parliamentarians, deputies and senators, is that we restore justice in this country. There are too many injustices. We have reached a level of social inequality that we have not reached in France for 30 years. And all this is the fruit of Emmanuel Macron’s policies. This is what must be called into question.

But Bercy still recalls that the objective is to maintain the deficit at 4.7% of GDP in 2026. There, we are more at 5% and on the Social Security Finance bill, this deficit was to be limited to 15 billion, the deputies pushed it to 26 billion. So you see that this is not an austerity budget.

They are magical. Here are people who have increased the country’s debt by 1,000 billion euros over the past 8 years and who then explain that they are going to restore the public accounts. If we want to restore the public accounts, we must look, I repeat, at the side of a certain number of expenditures. We must stop continuously paying public aid to businesses which, in fact, does not lead to job creation. We must restore order, restore justice. This is precisely what we want. And today, that is not the case. We have a budget that does not amount to this justice that we are calling for.

There are still certain senators, many in fact, who denounce fiscal inventiveness. We still have the feeling that everyone speaks a little to their voters. We wonder if the French understand anything about it. Aren’t some of the MPs simply voting for absolutely anything?

You know, I’ve heard a number of right-wing MPs say that our country is suffering from fiscal madness. The same people who speak of fiscal madness when we consider taxing multimillionaires or billionaires do not speak of fiscal madness when we slap taxes on the working classes and the middle classes. The same people consistently vote for the doubling of medical deductibles, that poses no problem for them. The same people vote for the increase in taxes on electricity and gas subscriptions, that poses no problem. In other words, we only talk about fiscal madness when we touch on taxes that concern the richest. We never talk about fiscal madness when it comes to the working and middle classes who are burdened with taxes. And so, once again, the question is justice. The question is not the overall level of tax, the question is who bears the tax effort? Well, we say that the tax effort must first be borne by those who have a lot.

The Senate, with a right-wing majority, should meticulously unravel the National Assembly’s text, notably erasing the concessions made to the socialists, starting with the suspension of the pension reform. Is it back to square one?

What is looming in the Senate is the chainsaw massacre. Moreover, Gérard Larcher did not hide it. They wish to call into question all the advances that have been obtained by the left in the National Assembly. And the risk is that at the end of the senatorial debate, the copy will be worse than Sébastien Lecornu’s initial copy. If that is the case, from my point of view, the Senate will completely discredit itself because it will stand in the way of the popular will, because it will stand in the way of what was expressed at the time of the last legislative elections, that is to say a desire for change. Well, he would do well to think twice before getting into that standoff. Because in my opinion, the Senate would come out very damaged in public opinion.

Everything still seems to indicate that neither of the two texts, the Finance bill and the Social Security Finance bill, will be completed on time. Do you believe Sébastien Lecornu when he swears that he will not use prescriptions?

I’m a little skeptical. What is certain is that the subject is not whether or not there will be a budget for France. There will be a budget and the government obviously has, through institutional means, the means to impose a budget. The question is whether we will have a good or bad budget. Our role, as communist parliamentarians, is to ensure that this is a budget that spares the working classes and the middle classes.

Click on the video to watch the interview in full.