‘French Thatcher’ says he wants to ditch welfare state

THE French finance minister has been likened to Margaret Thatcher for warning the country’s “nanny state” is snowballing into a “free for all, all the time”.

Bruno Le Maire, who denied his new book was intended as a presidential election manifesto, warned that the French welfare state has become “a machine for piling up new public expenditure”. He said it was “a system that has become uncontrollable” whose “ultimate goal is free everything, for everyone, all the time: it’s untenable”.

He also called for “better organisation of public services”, arguing that “we are not getting value for money”.

In his book, The French Way, the 54-year-old insists it is time to “replace the welfare state with a protective state”. He does not want to do away with social protection but cut health spending, in particular among anyone who isn’t old or infirm. France will never get rid of high unemployment without cutting France’s cushy dole system compared to other countries, he said.

“Why is there a 2 per cent gap between full employment in France and elsewhere? There is a problem of training, of matching supply and demand, and the issue of unemployment benefits,” he said.

French unemployment benefits continue for up to 18 months, one of the longest in Europe. He told France Inter:” this is what keeps unemployment at a low 7 per cent. If we had full employment, I wouldn’t even have to worry about public finances: we would have solved 90 per cent of the problem.”

Sophie Binet, the general secretary of the Leftist CGT, told French radio station BFMTV-RMC: “It feels like we’re witnessing the reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher.

“What he is proposing is to put an end once and for all to the legacy of the [post-war] National Resistance Council, which gives everyone security against the vagaries of life.”