Job cuts, one in three departures not replaced: how civil servants are back in the government's sights

Reducing the number of civil servants to save money. This measure, regularly proposed by liberal candidates throughout the presidential elections, had been somewhat muted since the "yellow vest" crisis. Now, in the middle of summer, it's making a resounding comeback in the discourse of an executive with its back to the wall.

Faced with an abysmal debt —peaking at over €3.3 trillion—and an equally worrying public deficit, which is expected to reach nearly €170 billion in 2025, François Bayrou recently brought up this old chestnut. In search of savings of over €40 billion, he had to resort to returning to this old recipe. Not without his ministers having prepared the ground before him.

Also read: The government wants to put the civil service on a strict diet

At the beginning of June, Amélie de Montchalin, the Minister of Public Accounts (and former Minister of the Civil Service), had put her foot in it, believing that the reduction in the number of civil servants "should not be...