Opposition parties frequently put forward the following argument in response to warnings from Prime Minister François Bayrou and President Emmanuel Macron's supporters about France's budget situation: Macron alone has added more than €1 trillion to the national debt since taking office in spring 2017, largely due to his "tax giveaways" to the wealthiest. But is it true?
€1 trillion… or €400 billion?
In June 2017, when Macron had just arrived at the Elysée, the national debt stood at €2.281 trillion. By March 2025, it had reached €3.345 trillion. That is an increase of 47%, or €1.064 trillion – consistent with the €1 trillion figure often cited.
However, over the same period, the country's national wealth, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), increased by 30%.
"A country with a higher GDP can afford to have higher debt, because the more wealth there is, the more possibilities there are to tax it to repay the debt," said economist Xavier Ragot, president of the French Economic Observatory (OFCE). For this reason, most experts do not find it meaningful to look at the absolute increase in debt in billions. Instead, they prefer to compare it to GDP, the wealth produced in a given year – a more accurate measure of a country's ability to repay its debt.
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