Blackmail isn’t pretty. But this is even less so. The departments run by the right and center announced on Thursday their intention to suspend payment of the revenu de solidarité active (RSA) and to stop taking in new unaccompanied minors (MNA) if the government does not reverse the budget cuts planned for 2025.
“As of January 1, all the Right and Center departments will suspend their payments” of RSA to the family allowance funds and “we will no longer take charge of the new unaccompanied minors because that’s migration policy”, declared Nicolas Lacroix (LR), president of the Right, Center and Independent Departments (DCI) group within the Départements de France association, at a press briefing in Angers.
Take the State to court
“So far, we’ve said nothing […]But child protection is not a matter of migration policy. Today, unaccompanied minors should be dealt with by the State,” he added. Nicolas Lacroix also plans to “take the State to court” every time it makes a decision “that impacts the finances of the départements without their agreement”, and is calling on the government to suspend the new increases planned for the Ségur.
In a separate press briefing, the thirty or so presidents of left-leaning départements held up colorful placards explaining the impact of the planned cuts on the lives of the French. “We’re also planning mobilizations in our own départements,” said Jean-Luc Gleyze, president of the left-leaning départements group, who plans to put up a large tarpaulin on the building of the Gironde département he presides over, or to demonstrate.
An explosion in social spending
“If we are defending the departmental budget today, it is above all because we are defending the people we help on a daily basis,” he added, pointing out that the budgetary effort had “already been made” for the departments with a loss of 6 billion euros in transfer duties in two years. “Will it be necessary to impact the elderly and their families? make them pay more than they have to in Ehpad? ? Will we have to reduce the number of social workers? Will there be less support for sports clubs? Will children need less protection? Will we have to raise the price of the school canteen for secondary school pupils?” he asked.
The départements are facing an explosion in their social spending on child protection, aid for the dependent elderly and the disabled, while at the same time seeing their revenues from property transactions melt away and recording less VAT than expected.
5 billion euros for local authorities
The Finance Bill for 2025 provides for a 5-billion-euro effort on the part of local authorities, but according to Départements de France, the departments are the stratum of local authorities most affected, with 44% of the effort, or 2.2 billion euros, even though their economic situation is recognized as fragile.
The départements are calling on the government to reconsider its position, abandoning the planned levy on operating revenue and the freeze on the VAT dynamic.