Since he left Bercy, the opportunities to hear Bruno Le Maire can be counted on the fingers of one hand. There are barely any summons for hearings in the Assembly and the Senate to see him take the microphone to staunchly defend his record and, by extension, that of the Macron years. After being heard at the Luxembourg Palace on November 7, the former boss of Bercy, in office for seven years, was required to appear this Thursday, December 12 at the National Assembly.
At the initiative of its president Éric Coquerel (LFI), the Finance Committee of the National Assembly obtained for six months the powers of a commission of inquiry (summons with obligation for the person to honor it, powers of investigation, hearings under oath, etc.), in order to investigate “the causes of the variation and discrepancies in tax and budgetary forecasts” noted for the years 2023 and 2024.
Between its two hearings, France plunged into institutional crisis, after the vote on a historic motion of censure. Without Prime Minister, unable to adopt a budget. From his introductory remarks, Bruno Le Maire does not miss the opportunity to denounce the irresponsibility of the National Assembly, or at least of a majority of deputies. “The debate on the 2025 budget and the government's motion of censure have made the masks fall: this assembly does not want to reduce public spending, this assembly does not want to reduce the debt, this assembly does not want a serious plan to restore public public accounts in France,” he says straight away, moving away somewhat from the objective of the commission of inquiry.
Everyone takes it for their rank
Bruno Le Maire drops his punches. In this little game, almost everyone gets a kick out of it. The NFP, accused of multiplying taxes, levies. “Mr. Mélenchon knows his history: he knows that all the revolutions in France were preceded by a movement of anger against taxes. So he and his cronies charge the tax boat to death, in the secret hope of seeing the wind of revolution rise, of overthrowing the government now and tomorrow the President of the Republic. »
The RN, then, accused of preferring artifice. “A pinch of the fight against fraud, a hair less migrants, and presto! The deficit has disappeared! “, he blurted. Laurent Wauquiez, again, accused of “hypocrisy” when Bruno Le Maire says he is speaking “in front of parliamentarians who rush at 8 p.m. to announce that pensions will be increased on January 1st”, a measure with necessarily negative effects for public finances.
France, he said, does not risk sudden death but slow death. The Covid crisis, widely mentioned as being the main cause of our budgetary woes, cost fewer points of GDP than the management of the 2008 financial crisis by Nicolas Sarkozy, continues Bruno Le Maire, determined not to receive financial accounts. person. Because efforts have been made, he assures, to initiate the reindustrialization of France and reduce unemployment. But also to try to contain the very sharp increase in deficits by initiating “25 billion euros of credit cancellations, exit from the tariff shield on electricity, doubling of the franchise on medicines or levy on energy companies or taxation of share buybacks. »
“Hypocrisy”
The tone used by the former minister annoys all ranks of the former oppositions. Socialists, RN elected officials deplore the “contempt” displayed by the former minister. “This is no way to address parliamentarians,” growls Democratic and Republican Left (GDR) MP Emmanuel Maurel as Bruno Le Maire answers a question.
“How can a Budget that you wrote in the corridors of Matignon and Bercy be the responsibility of the oppositions? “, asks RN Jean-Philippe Tanguy, while the commission's rapporteur Éric Ciotti accuses him of a “form of populism” when he asks the deputies: “Who are you to judge me? “. “You were a minister for seven years,” continues the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes. You have talked a lot about censorship, blaming this censorship for all the ills that the French economy is suffering today. But you forgot the word dissolution. »
“Yes, I am responsible for all my decisions, my choices, my actions,” assured Bruno Le Maire at the start of his speech. At the end of his hearing, he ultimately admitted only one failure: forecast errors by his services. “In seven days with censorship, you have derailed France again,” Bruno Le Maire said to the deputies, accusing them three times of “hypocrisy”. And to drive the point home: “And you say you want to reduce the debt burden? Hypocrisy »
