France's public debt has reached record levels during Emmanuel Macron's presidency, causing concern ahead of next year's election PARIS -- France’s public debt has climbed to a record during the two terms of President Emmanuel Macron, unsettling investors and emerging as a defining issue ahead of next year’s presidential election. With France already gripped by deep social tensions, the candidates vying to succeed Macron are under pressure to explain how they would bring the debt under control. It now stands at 119% of gross domestic product, leaving the country’s strained public finances likely to dominate the campaign.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who is to unveil the 2027 draft budget on Thursday, wants his government to reduce the country’s deficit by cutting public spending. That idea has drawn widespread criticism across the political spectrum. One idea to fix the debt has been particularly scrutinized.
The radical-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has proposed canceling French government bonds held by the European Central Bank to unlock money for public spending, claiming it would free up funds for investment. Others on the right argue that Melenchon’s proposal is unrealistic, with far-right leader Marine Le Pen calling for reforms to “clean up” public finances. "Freezing it is therefore effectively the same as canceling it.” ECB President Christine Lagarde says Melenchon's idea would be a “pure violation” of the EU treaty, which bans central bank financing of national governments.
Lagarde insisted that if the country freezes its debt now, the next time it seeks to borrow, creditors could demand exorbitant terms or flat-out say no. Here is a look at France's public debt and how it affects the second-largest economy in Europe. France remains a major industrial power and has the world’s seventh-largest economy.
But at the end of June, its public debt stood at 3.596 trillion euros ($4.08 trillion), equivalent to 119% of GDP, according to figures released this week by France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. It stood at 97.9% of GDP in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. France is hardly alone in loading up on debt in recent years.
At the end of the first quarter of 2026, the general government gross debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 88.9%, according to data from Eurostat, the official statistical office of the European Union. France's debt pile is smaller than Greece’s, which was 143.5% of GDP, and Italy’s (138.9%). It’s also lower than the U.S.’s 122.6%.
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