Paris (France) (AFP) – Faced with the anger of firefighters, particularly professionals, Laurent Nuñez promised Friday to strengthen the resources of the departmental fire and rescue services (Sdis), to the tune of one billion euros over five years, a budgetary measure which will nevertheless have to be voted on each year.
Published on: 02/10/2026 - 20:54Modified on: 02/10/2026 - 21:04
In a speech broadcast at the annual firefighters' congress, the Minister of the Interior assured that the so-called civil security modernization bill would contain "an article explicitly showing the means" allocated for the next five years.
“This programming will be financed each year by 200 million in revenue from the special tax on additional insurance agreements, which appear in the finance bill for 2027,” indicated the minister.
The government is indeed planning in this PLF, obtained Thursday by the AFP, an "exceptional increase" in the tax on insurance agreements (TSCA) in order to strengthen the resources of the Sdis, an increase estimated at 200 million euros.
A fraction of this TSCA, which applies to motorists' insurance contracts and is allocated to local authorities and social security organizations, is allocated to departments to finance firefighters.
“This effort represents on the scale of a five-year period a billion euros in new revenue for civil security,” said Laurent Nuñez, a few months before a presidential election with an uncertain outcome.
“It’s an interesting political direction,” Xavier Boy, president of the professional firefighters union FA/SPP-PATS, told AFP.
“But an announcement does not constitute a lasting budgetary commitment. We will judge on the texts, the amounts actually recorded and the sums actually received by the SDIS,” he warned.
During his video speech, sent to AFP by his services, the Minister of the Interior spoke of an "unprecedented" fire season, "with more than 100,000 hectares burned."
After the megafires of summer 2026, firefighters say they are out of breath. Professional firefighters' unions issued strike notice until October 20 and launched unusual strike actions last weekend and at the start of the week.
“There will be a before and after 2026. This summer obliges us,” acknowledged Laurent Nuñez, promising in particular an increase in resources “by doubling, for example, the number of helicopters and light planes which will be rented for the 2027 forest fire season” and to invest, “from 2027” in firefighting kits to equip A440M military aircraft.
“The toxicity of the smoke to which you are exposed is a reality”, he also declared to the firefighters, ensuring that he had “given instructions” to “launch specific work to improve respiratory and eye protection during fires in natural areas”.
He also assured that measures reported as “red lines no longer appear in the project carried out by the government”. “The government's intention was never to contract volunteer firefighters,” he underlined, before adding: “The measure providing for the establishment of a non-full-time annualized contract has been removed from the bill.”
And Laurent Nuñez assures that “there was never any question of including the management of obvious public drunkenness in the missions of the firefighters”.
© 2026 AFP
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