Budget and organization of my presidential schedule

I want the president's schedule to stop being a showcase of trips built around oversized delegations.

A presidential trip should not be a publicity exercise. It must serve to observe, decide, follow up, correct, and report back. When the president travels, the State must work better as a result. Otherwise, the trip is expensive, mobilizes too many people, produces plenty of photographs, and leaves few visible results for the French.

My approach is clear: fewer scattered trips, leaner delegations, fewer stand-alone foreign trips, longer stays in the territories, closer follow-up, and decisions that can be held to account.

The cost of presidential travel

In 2024, presidential travel cost 20.1 million euros across 94 trips. Of that total, trips within mainland France cost 5.3 million euros, and international trips cost 10.5 million euros. By comparison, the three trips to the overseas territories cost 2.1 million euros.

I intend to reverse that balance.

The place of the overseas territories in the presidential schedule

The overseas territories must no longer be rarely visited. They must become a regular site of presidential work. Every month, I want to devote more days to an overseas territory.

Scaling back presidential delegations

I want to substantially reduce the size of the delegations that accompany me on these trips.

Security cannot be treated as optional — it remains in a category of its own, since it falls to the State's duty to protect the presidency. But it must not be used as cover for rebuilding an oversized political entourage around the president.

Priority for commercial travel

Transport must change too. Commercial flights should take priority whenever possible. The government aircraft should be kept for emergencies, security requirements, network disruptions, or major scheduling constraints.

A presidential presence that serves a purpose

The president should not arrive in a territory to deliver a speech and leave, abandoning residents to keep waiting. He must come to work.

Diplomacy from French territories

This approach also allows for a different kind of diplomacy. Exchanges with countries in the Caribbean can be prepared from the Antilles or French Guiana. Exchanges in the Indian Ocean can be handled from Réunion or Mayotte. Exchanges in the Pacific can be organized from French Polynesia, New Caledonia, or Wallis and Futuna.

France speaks more effectively to its neighbors when it speaks from the nearest French territory.

Budgetary doctrine

My budgetary doctrine is therefore clear:

  • Fewer scattered costs.
  • Leaner delegations.
  • Fewer repeat trips without follow-up.
  • More purposeful presence.
  • More work done on the ground.
  • More time in the overseas territories.
  • More accountable decisions.

A president should not measure his record by the number of kilometers traveled, but by what genuinely changes in the lives of the French after his visit.