Jean-Luc Mélenchon—the leader of the French far-left party “La France Insoumise”—wants to minimize concerns that the French government debt is very high at more than 100% of GDP. Such fears undermine his calls for higher government spending and chances to win the 2027 presidential elections. He has always looked enthusiastically for ways to lower public debt, even if only by accounting gimmicks. In 2020 as member of the French Parliament, Mr. Mélenchon called for canceling part of the French public debt held by the European Central Bank (ECB). In June 2026, after renewing his presidential bid, he also asked for measuring government debt against the economic value added over the lifetime of the debt stock, and not over one year GDP. By this new indicator, France’s public debt would magically shrink to around 12 – 13% of GDP.

Is the Measurement of Debt an Issue?

Following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), COVID-19 pandemic, many years of sluggish growth, and persistent budget deficits, government debt has reached record high levels in many Western economies. According to the IMF Global Debt Monitor, public debt in Western Economies has more than doubled from about 45% of GDP in the 1960s to around 110% of GDP in 2024. Among them, the French public debt has been one of the fastest growing from less than 20% of GDP in the 1960s to 115% of GDP in 2025.

Yet, Mr. Mélenchon and his party supporters believe that the French public debt is not high, because it can be financed at relatively low interest rates.  In addition, the debt is allegedly cushioned from a market sell-off by the importance of the French economy and systemic banks. Implicitly, Mr. Mélenchon admits that the ECB would most certainly jump to the rescue if needed, buy French bonds and lower interest rates. This is exactly what happened in the aftermath of the GFC when the ECB Governor Mario Draghi issued the famous “whatever it takes” commitment to save the euro and the ECB expanded its balance sheet by an astronomical EUR 5 trillion or 37.5% of GDP. In fact the French and euro area public debt are not financed cheaply because they are low, but because they benefit from central bank support and preferential treatment.

In order to avoid central bank monetization of government debt, which would be inflationary and politically divisive  in a monetary union of sovereign states, the founding fathers of the euro came up with the Maastricht fiscal........

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