News - France's prime minister said the country's colossal financial debt “hangs like the Sword of Damocles”

France must cut its budget deficit and rack up its massive debt, the country's newly appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier told lawmakers on Tuesday, pledging a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, France 24 reported.“Our goal is to reduce the deficit to five percent (of GDP) in 2025 ... we are on the right track to reach the three percent ceiling in 2029,” Barnier said, adding that two-thirds of the cuts would involve ”spending cuts.”He noted, however, that the government would “ask the big companies making big profits to contribute to the economic recovery.”“The sword of Damocles hanging over us is our colossal financial debt,” Barnier said in his keynote speech to parliament, adding that France's budget deficit was weakening France's position in Europe.