Emmanuel Macron will deliver his traditional New Year’s Eve message to France next week, an event that one imagines is testing the skills of his speech writers. What to say after a year of unmitigated disaster? What is there for the French to look forward to 2025 other than more uncertainty, more insecurity and more economic woe?
On Friday, the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) announced that France’s public debt has risen again. It now stands at €3.3 trillion (£2.7 trillion) at end of the third quarter of 2024, equating to 113.7 per cent of GDP.
There are signs that the pressure is getting to Macron
Macron was in a similar pickle twelve months ago. On that occasion, the President had to put a gloss on a 2023 that had seen massive street protests against the government’s pension reform, followed by a wave of nationwide rioting after police shot dead a youth in a stolen car.
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