Article ID: 880f61ae92be4bda8e1ca2b59860f895a7848ca7911d46093c789adffcdf486f
Source ID: primary:insurancejournal.com
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Extraction Method: trafilatura
URL: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/09/16/885264.htm
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AXA SA Chief Executive Officer Thomas Buberl called on France’s next president to address the country’s debt mountain with structural reforms and rejected a far-left plan to cancel bonds as “dangerous.” The euro area’s second-biggest economy is under intense scrutiny, with a runaway deficit, soaring interest costs and faltering growth. Repairing public finances has become a key issue in campaigning ahead of next spring’s presidential elections. “This new government will have to address the structural issues with reforms in order to get the budget into a better balance,” Buberl told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “Increasing taxation year after year will not solve the structural problem.” The head of the Paris-based insurer said there would be a strong reaction from investors if France’s challenges weren’t addressed. The additional yield on French 10-year bonds over their German counterparts, a measure of risk, has already climbed to nearly 1 percentage point, the highest level since Europe’s sovereign debt crisis more than a decade ago. “The risk is then that the markets will show very clearly that they are dissatisfied,” he said. “The message is very clear: there is no opportunity but to restructure the public finances.” French insurers and banks are among the government’s main lenders. AXA has about 12% of its assets invested in the country. Buberl also warned against a proposal from far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon to cancel bonds held at the European Central Bank and the Bank of France. Some surveys of voting intentions show him reaching the second-round runoff. “The discourse around debt and potentially not repaying debt, to my mind this is a very dangerous discussion,” he said. This “plays with fire and plays with the credibility of France.” Photograph: AXA SA CEO Thomas Buberl; photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg Was this article valuable? Here are more articles you may enjoy.
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