Four presidents. One trajectory.
When you remove the portraits, the speeches, the promises, and the “historic moments,” all that remains is a graph.
And it hurts us in the butt, friends...
French public debt:
• It increases under Chirac
• It accelerates under Sarkozy
• It continues under Hollande
• It explodes under Macron
No matter the political color.
No matter the crises invoked.
No matter the justifications after the fact.
With each term, the scenario is the same:
👉 more spending
👉 more debt
👉 and always the promise that “this time, it’s exceptional.”
2008: financial crisis.
2020: “whatever it takes.”
2021–2025: health, energy, geopolitical crisis…
2026: 310 billion euros to refinance.
This graph says something I’ve seen my whole career in banking:
we manage a state like we manage a over-indebted client… as long as the markets are willing to lend.
The day trust cracks, everything changes.
Rates rise.
Leeway disappears.
And it’s never “the stars” who foot the bill, but the taxpayers, savers, and future generations.
So the real question is not:
❌ “Who has done worse than the previous one?”
The real question is:
👉 how much longer can this model hold?
#DettePublique #FinancesPubliques #MacroEconomie