You know the urban legend around the student who had a philosophy test “What is audacity?” ”, would have just answered “That’s it” and would have scored 18/20 (or 20/20, it depends on the version). Well we found it! From the start, it was apparently Bruno Le Maire, former Minister of the Economy.
The latter, who nevertheless held the position for seven years, on Thursday accused the National Assembly of “hypocrisy” which “taxes, spends and censors” in a diatribe launched at the deputies of the commission responsible for investigating the slippages budgetary during his mandate. With in particular, as we recall for the two at the bottom, a public deficit of 6.1%, a record in this area for decades. And we're nice, we won't talk about the debt.
The best defense is attack (and nerve)
In a report, a senatorial mission had castigated “assumed budgetary irresponsibility” and a “damaging wait-and-see attitude” of previous executives, to which the ex-minister responded by denouncing an “indictment of political opponents”, “riddled with lies” .
Anything to say to defend yourself Bruno? Well yes. It's all the MPs' fault. It had to be tried, but still. “In seven days with censorship, you have derailed France again,” said the former minister. “I am speaking in front of parliamentarians who, with rare exceptions, all wanted to increase the bill for exceptional support measures in the face of Covid and who now refuse to abandon these measures. » Ha, if only there had been a minister at Bercy to sort that out. But let's not cut it with our sarcasm. “I speak in front of parliamentarians who rush at 8 p.m. to announce that pensions will be significantly increased on January 1st. And you say you want to reduce the debt burden? Hypocrisy,” declared Bruno Le Maire.
MPs not fans of this argument
“I speak in front of parliamentarians who claim to want the good of our compatriots, but who throughout public sessions offer the spectacle of invectives, verbal threats and noise. Hypocrisy”, denouncing an assembly which “taxes, spends, censors”. “Who are you to judge? “, he asked again.
The diatribe ironically described as “invigorating” by Éric Coquerel, president of the finance committee, provoked strong reactions, and many deputies denounced a lack of humility and contempt for the former tenant of Bercy. “Is this a joke?” “, heard an AFP journalist in the audience at the start of Bruno Le Maire’s speech. “The best defense is attack,” commented communist deputy Nicolas Sansu.
“Extremely shocked”
Eric Ciotti (UDR), co-rapporteur of the commission of inquiry, declared he was “extremely shocked” by the introductory speech, denouncing an attitude “which ultimately borders on a form of anti-parliamentarism, populism”.
The former Minister of Economy and Finance considered it “very easy” to make him bear “responsibility for the deterioration of public accounts in 2023 and 2024, so easy that almost everyone since my retirement from life public has taken this path with suspicious unanimity, unworthy of our democracy.”
