France's newly appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier is facing the mammoth task of getting the 2025 budget through a parliament where he doesn't have a majority. And the pressure is mounting, as this year's budget deficit will now exceed 6% of the country's economic output — as opposed to the initially predicted 4.4%.

The topic was at the center of Barnier's general policy speech in the National Assembly on October 1. "A sword of Damocles is hanging over us. It could push us to the brink of the abyss," he told lawmakers.

President Emmanuel Macron appointed Barnier after months of hesitation following early July's snap parliamentary elections. The prime minister thus missed the traditional deadline of October 1 to present his budget plans in parliament. He will now disclose them on October 10.

France's public debt currently totals roughly €3.2 trillion ($3.53 trillion), about 110% of French GDP, compared to €2.2 trillion at the start of Macron's first term in office in 2017. He was re-elected for another five years in 2022.

Michel Ruimy, professor of Economics at Paris-based Sciences Po university, puts the rise down to two main factors. "The government spent a lot of money helping households and companies during the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020," he told DW. "Paris also heavily subsidized electricity prices, after they skyrocketed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022."

Henri Sterdyniak, co-founder of a left-leaning collective called Devastated Economists, also blames other measures taken by Macron........

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