The first to go to the grill of the members of the Senate Finance Committee, Thursday, November 7, is former Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Mairewho for two and a half hours defended his policy and shifted responsibility for the deficit to the current government. I am here in “free man“, says Bruno Le Maire. He wants “give your truth“after having suffered for months, “attacks and lies“. Between a deficit forecast at 4.4% of GDP and which ultimately exceeds 6%, there is a difference of 50 billion euros. The senators therefore want to know what happened. There is no had nor “concealment “, is “willingness to deceive“on public accounts, assures the former Minister of Finance, but”a serious technical error in evaluating revenues for which we are paying the price “.
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According to Bruno Le Maire, it was possible to contain the deficit this year. “If all the measures that we had prepared with Thomas Cazenave had been implemented without delay, coupled with the revenue measures on energy rents and on share buybacks with retroactive effect, they would have made it possible to contain the deficit for 2024 to 5 .5% without tax increase, he continues. I therefore formally contest this figure of 6.1% which is rehashed over and over again to explain that the previous government did everything wrong and that the new government is doing everything right.”
“The weight of social spending” and the “insufficient volume of work”
Not enough to convince the senators. “CIt is no longer an exceptional storm, it is rather a long-lasting hurricane“, quips the general budget rapporteur, Senator LR Jean-François Husson. “I note this kind of fireworks of self-satisfaction on your action which is paid at the high price of a colossal and abysmal debt“, declares the senator. Bruno Le Maire defends his results. He assures him: “The primary reason for deficits in France is the weight of social spending and our insufficient volume of work. “.
Then, Bruno Le Maire recalls that he pushed for an amending finance bill last spring, but he lost this arbitration. On this point, the senators wonder: did the executive decide against it because the Europeans were arriving? “The answer is to be asked of those who took the arbitration“, the former Minister of Finance retorts. “A pirouette“, tackles François Husson. Not at all, assures Bruno Le Maire: “I have taken a position, I defend it, I am in solidarity with the decisions that are taken, but if we must ask for an explanation of the decision, it is from those who took the decision that we must do so, not to the one who defended a different position“.
Senators will hear former Budget Minister Thomas Cazenave on Thursday afternoon. Then it will be Gabriel Attal's turn on Friday morning, then that of Élisabeth Borne on November 15.
Camille Revel's explanations, edited by Diane Warin.
