Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. Emmanuel Macron's gift to choose who he wants to lead his next government, and the question is what will that mean for the country's economy and for the prospects of passing a budget. Let's discuss now with Fabrius Lesachet, who's the vice president of France's biggest business lobby, MEDEF. Fabri's good to talk to you again on Bloomberg Radio. Thanks for joining us this morning. I mean, how passive, mister, are you about the future now?
Given that we've gone through another prime minister. We're heading for number seven under Emmanuel Macron. Do you think that he can find anyone who can do better?
I don't know about this. You know, for us, the identity of the prime minister is not the main The important part is are we able to find compromise, political compromise to support for business policy and to carry on the reforms that are much needed and change the cure of the debt which is now skyrocketing, putting in danger the country because the interest rate go up and also the cost of paying all these refinancing. All this and at some point we will pay one hundred billion in
one or two years. The forecast that wonticipit is that will pay one hundred billion euro year or just for the debt interest. This is not lasting, this is not sustainable. We need money for something else, for investments. We need also to drop down the tax. We need to revise very seriously the social spending. We know that two thirds of the debt comes from pension and comes from social spending, and we know what we need to do. So that's the main point.
For preseos with the masters. Of course that we heard loud and clear from the last two prime ministers. They didn't have any success in addressing any of those issues. Do you think that the socialist prime minister could make things better or worse for business?
Not at all when you read if it's based on the socialist program, it will be a catastrophe because they want to do like in the UK and even worse tax on capital game, which will be an open door to escape the countries for pats of wealth, for hoppreneurs, for business people, and this is not what we want. We want to welcome entrepreneurs in this country because if we need to repay the debt, we can only do it with growth, with added value with revenues, with profits,
and not by getting the countries more poor. So no, it will be a catastrophe. But the Socialist cannot rule the country without a compromise with the other political parties, so we will need to see. But of course it will be a bad signal, that's for sure.
Fabrius, what's the danger in the interim period when we're in another uncertain period for French pol Arguably nothing's really been achieved in the past two years. What does that mean for your members? What does that mean for business in France? Now?
In fact they have achieved. One thing is unstability, which is not good for business because when you cannot obviously plan and expect something a bit stable, you don't invest. And when you see the growth in France which was zero point three percent in the second quarter, a bit more than the expectation, but still low, it does not rely at all on private investment or consumption. The savings
are skyrocketing, the investment is very low. That showed no confidence from consumers and corporations, and the growth is only based on a technical storage stock. So this is not a good sign and the outlook is not very positive. If you add on that the tariffs from the US and the work capacity from China, the stakes are very high.
Okay, fabrus asashe vice president of French business OP Group, madef thank you very much for joining us.