"Too many civil servants": why the plan to cut civil service staff will cost the State dearly

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The government is preparing the ground for a reduction in the number of civil servants, with a view to achieving its 40 billion savings in the 2026 budget. As with every austerity push, the fallacious discourse on the weight of civil servants returns as an obsession, which has nevertheless demonstrated its deleterious effects: deterioration of public service, inability to reduce the deficit, and additional costs for state coffers.

As always, the figures are presented under the deceptive guise of simple observation. "Last year, there was a significant increase in the number of civil servants who contributed to the budgetary overrun," explains Éric Lombard on France Inter, omitting to specify that he is counting contract workers, who are sitting on ejection seats. © Lafargue Raphael/ABACA

Side A: emergency services in dire straits , students without teachers, post office counters and tax offices closing at full tilt. Side B: a government that repeats the same old refrain about the supposed hypertrophy of public services and the number of civil servants. Once again, the dissonance is glaring between the reality reported by the field and the recent announcements by the executive , aimed at reducing the number of civil servants, with a view to finding at all costs the 40 billion euros of savings for its 2026 budget.

While awaiting the announcements on these arbitrations scheduled for July 14, the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, and her counterpart for the Economy, Éric Lombard, are preparing the ground. They jointly launched the offensive on June 8: the first by pointing out, in a tone of evidence,...