The Bank of France denied on Saturday any sale of public debt on the financial markets, after accusations from LFI deputy Eric Coquerel.
“Following the controversies and false information circulating on social networks, the Banque de France wishes to provide details on its public debt holding program,” she explained in a press release. The latter does not mention Eric Coquerel, but the rare approach of the French central bank comes the day after the publication on
An “illegal, dangerous and unnecessary” measure
On Friday, Emmanuel Moulin estimated on RTL that the proposal of LFI candidate for the presidential election Jean-Luc Mélenchon to cancel the share of the French debt held by the Bank of France would be an “illegal, dangerous and useless” measure. “He showed that he was in no way independent of political powers, since he entered the electoral campaign in a very partisan manner,” denounced Eric Coquerel in a video relayed Friday by the L’insoumission platform account.
The deputy added that the governor had also estimated the share of French debt held by the Banque de France at 488 billion euros at the end of June, while it stood at 546 billion at the end of 2025. “It’s minus 58 billion in six months,” says Mr. Coquerel in the video, where he asks if “the Bank of France is not in the process of organizing a resale (…) of these debt shares on the financial markets.” In its press release, the Banque de France assures that the “reduction in the stock of public debt” that it holds “results exclusively from the arrival of maturity of a part of the securities” concerned, of which “no sale on the markets” has “taken place since their acquisition”.
Asset buyback programs?
The stock of French debt held by the Banque de France comes from two asset buyback programs implemented by the European Central Bank (ECB), one from mid-2014 and another emergency launched in March 2020 during the Covid crisis. When the securities thus purchased matured, the Banque de France could reinvest their repayment by purchasing new bonds, which has no longer been possible since July 2023 for the first program and since January 2025 for the second, in accordance with decisions of the Governing Council of the ECB in 2023, recalls the press release.
“The Banque de France is available to the Finance Committee of the National Assembly to explain the functioning of these monetary policy operations while respecting its independence,” concludes the monetary body. The proposal to cancel the French debt held by the Bank of France is “ubiquitous”, because France would then no longer find a lender, declared the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, in an interview with Ouest-France on Saturday. “It is financially very dangerous” and would constitute “a violation of European treaties”, she warned
