Everyone in our society has had to make a contribution towards dealing with the debts.

The line frames public debt as a collective burden that must be shared across society, implying that austerity measures—tax rises, spending cuts, or reduced public services—are justified because everyone benefits from restoring fiscal stability. It also works rhetorically to normalize sacrifice and to pre-empt objections that particular groups are being singled out, even though in practice the distribution of costs can be uneven. In the context of post-financial-crisis politics, the statement aligns with a moralized narrative of “living within our means,” casting deficit reduction as a civic duty rather than a contested policy choice.