PARIS: Targeted tax rises and spending cuts will be required to narrow France’s gaping budget deficit, Prime Minister Michel Barnier said on Tuesday as he outlined his new government’s policy plans to parliament. Barnier, appointed last month, faces the challenging task of plugging a huge hole in public finances at a time when the fragmentation of parliament and infighting in his minority government will make it hard to push through reforms.

At stake is France’s credibility with its European Union partners and in financial markets, as its borrowing costs have surged. “The sword of Damocles hanging over us is our colossal financial debt,” Barnier told lawmakers, ignoring heckles from the hard-left France Unbowed.

France’s deficit was making it weaker in Europe, he added. France’s biggest companies will be asked to contribute more to the deficit reduction effort through higher taxes, as will the country’s wealthiest individuals, Barnier said, without giving further details. “The situation of our public finances today requires a targeted effort, limited in time,” Barnier said. According to Le Parisien newspaper, Barnier was considering tax hikes of 15 to 18 billion euros ($17-20 billion).

They reportedly included an additional 8 billion euros through taxes on corporations, and the imposition of an additional 3 billion euro levy on energy companies and share buybacks.

The plans also include raising income taxes for top earners to bring in some 3 billion euros, and increasing electricity taxes for another 3 billion euros, Le Parisien said, without citing sources.

Barnier’s office did not reply to a request for comment on the figures. Barnier said he would push back the target date for reaching the euro zone’s common 3 percent deficit goal to 2029 from 2027. It risks hitting 6 percent this year, his government has said. Barnier, a conservative, was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron nearly two months after a snap election delivered a hung parliament. For now, his government of centrist and conservative ministers has the tacit support of the far-right National Rally, and depends on it.

A leftwing alliance won most seats in the election but without an absolute majority and Macron chose not to appoint a prime minister from its ranks. France Unbowed lawmakers, who say the vote was “stolen” and that there should be a leftwing prime minister, brandished their voter cards as Barnier started speaking and frequently shouted him down during his speech.

“The French did not vote for you,” some yelled. – Reuters