Angers university not favourable to the austerity policy of the new French government

Le récent remaniement ministériel, bien qu'incarné par des changements de personnalités, est aussi le reflet d'une divergence à propos de l'intérêt de la politique d'austérité budgétaire que le gouvernement veut engager. Un enseignant de l'université d'Angers a été consulté à ce sujet. Son avis n'est pas favorable à la ligne d'austérité promue par le premier ministre Manuel Valls reconduit dans ses fonctions.

The recent changes in French government make-up, as dramatic as they could be, were nevertheless due to a public split about the efficiency of budgetary austerity that one is the promoter. That point was submitted by the daily Le Figaro to some economic researchers and, among them, David Cayla, member of the Groupe de recherches angevin en économie et en management (Granem). Mr. Cayla was questioned by the newspaper about the effects of austerity measures on public deficit. Those measures apparently do not match the Granem researcher's approval.

That one is rather perplexed : "An austerity policy has few consequences on the deficit", thinks the Angevin

researcher who recommends "an economic boost and growth policy" supported by Arnaud Montebourg, the ousted Economy French minister. David Cayla also considers that the decrease of inflation is favourable to those who lend money instead of those who borrow money. Mr Cayla ads, in order to illustrate the uselessness of austerity that "the freeze of wages in civil service has no effect on economy".

Regarding the consequences of austerity programme on medium and popular households, Mr Cayla considers that lower social cotisations are "profits" for companies implemented by the government in order to increase investments. But that is not true, points out Mr. Cayla who recommends "an increase of minimal wages for households as a compensation of decrease of social cotisations for companies".

The Granem delegate was one of three researchers Le Figaro consulted over France. Others were one liberal and the other left think-tank. The Granem is a multidisciplinary team in economy, management and sociology. It includes 122 members, teachers, researchers and PhD students coming from Angers university and the National Institute in Horticulture and Landscape.