Two months after the defeat of the presidential camp in the legislative elections in June, Bruno Le Maire said goodbye to the Ministry of Economy. He will therefore not be part of the next government and leaves with the longevity record at Bercy.
“My dear friends, I am leaving. As Michel Sardou would say, I love you, but I am leaving.” It was with this musical reference that Bruno Le Maire made his departure from the Ministry of the Economy official on Thursday, seven years after his arrival. Two months after the defeat of the presidential camp in the legislative elections, he said his farewells in a speech in front of 1,500 people in the courtyard of the ministry.
A supporter of Emmanuel Macron since his victory in 2017, Bruno Le Maire has experienced a political renaissance at Bercy, after his bitter failure in the right-wing primary. He leaves holding the record for longevity in the post of Minister of the Economy.
In his farewell speech, Bruno Le Maire thanked the ministers who accompanied him during his “seven-year term” at Bercy: Olivia Grégoire, Gérald Darmanin, Marina Ferrari, etc.
From “whatever it costs” to the necessary budgetary seriousness
Over the past seven years, Bruno Le Maire has sought to establish himself as the embodiment of the Bercy “ocean liner”, steering the French economy through crises with massive aid, before having to initiate a recovery of the public finances, which had deteriorated significantly, while promising to continue to reduce taxes for businesses and households. He has also made full employment and the reindustrialization of France priorities, seeing them as the necessary conditions for sustainable growth.
After loosening the purse strings to deal with the Covid pandemic, Bruno Le Maire sought to convince people of French budgetary virtue, calling for an end to the “whatever the cost” and to redress public accounts weakened by crises. To the point that France was singled out by the European Commission for excessive deficit and downgraded by the S&P rating agency.
Has Bruno Le Maire’s call to employers against the RN been heard?
After the post-Covid recovery, in fact, growth slowed, the public deficit skidded (5.5% in 2023 and potentially 5.6% this year) and the debt exploded (almost 3,160 billion euros at the end of March, around 111% of GDP). Tens of billions of euros in additional savings had to be announced at the beginning of the year.
“There were mistakes of course, things that weren’t perfect, but I always did the best I could,” Bruno Le Maire recently acknowledged, taking stock of his seven-year term and saying he was ready to turn the page, without revealing his future intentions.
Paul Louis and Clément Lesaffre with AFP
