“So who are you to judge?“This Thursday, December 12, Bruno Le Maire defended for just over four hours final bill and the sincerity of his action at the head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (2017-2024). The former minister was interviewed as part of the work carried out by the finance committee, which has acquired the powers toa commission of inquiry pour “study and research the causes of the variation and discrepancies in the fiscal and budgetary forecasts of public administrations for the years 2023 and 2024“.
Far from sketching a mea culpa on the slippage of public finances, Bruno Le Maire heavily implicated parliamentarians : “The debate on the 2025 budget and the government's motion of censure have removed the masks, this Assembly, with very rare exceptions, does not want to reduce public spending, does not want to reduce the debt“he declared straight away.
This Assembly taxes, spends, censors. Bruno Le Maire
And the former minister ofaccuse the New Popular Front of “play with fire” in “multiplying taxes, imposts, levies of all kinds“, or even target the National Rally Who “prefers artifice“ : “Madame Le Pen voted for censure under the tender gaze on the balcony of the National Assembly of Mr Mélenchon“, denounced Bruno Le Maire. The president of the Republican Right group, Laurent Wauquiez was also targeted: “I speak in front of parliamentarians who rush to 8 p.m. to announce that pensions will be significantly increased on 1is January“. “And you say you want to reduce the debt burden? Hypocrisy!“he lambasted before the finance committee.
Very offensive, Bruno Le Maire pretended to question the deputies : “Where have you proposed and documented sustainable, serious, significant savings in your debates? Nowhere“. Before adding: “You will never make me bear the responsibility for this collective blindness which prevents you from seeing a simple thing, neither taxes nor pieces of string will solve the debt problem and deficits in France, which dates back fifty years.“
Parliamentarians “always asked for more”
Bruno Le Maire believes “easy, but wrong” of “to bear on [ses] only shoulders responsibility for the deterioration of public accounts in 2023 and 2024“. According to him, “the brutal deterioration of public accounts is primarily due to an error in revenue forecasting“. A forecast error made by Bercy's services, but which the former minister assumes since they “were under [son] authority“.
Concerning the Covid crisisBruno Le Maire spoke of the cost of “massive protection measures“, encrypted at “environ 15 additional debt points“. An expense claimed by the former deputy for Eure: “The Covid debt is our collective debt, it would have been twice as large if I had listened to you“, he said, castigating the attitude of parliamentarians who, at the time, “always asked for more“.
Bruno Le Maire also justified the “25 billion euros” of “budget correction“decided at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 to cope”to a sudden loss of tax revenue of 42 billion euros“as well as”new spending by local authorities amounting to 12 billion euros“.
“You dismissed all these savings out of hand, so who are you to judge?“said the former minister again. Bruno Le Maire also recalled having pleaded in favor of a amending finance bill. Such a text “would have had the immense merit of putting this subject of public finances at the heart of the political debate“, he explained.
I think I can be blamed for everything, but certainly not for not having warned since 2021 about the seriousness of the public finance situation. Bruno Le Maire
“Promises” financed “on credit”
In addition to the Covid epidemic and the inflationary crisis caused by the start of the war in Ukraine, which led him to take measures to protect purchasing power and businesses, the former tenant of Bercy also mentioned THE “mass unemployment” which has long affected the country and“industrial collapse since 1980“the “social model” Frenchas well as “the weight of pensions“to explain the current situation of public finances. And to point out, in particular, the long-term consequences of retirement at 60 (decided in 1982, editor's note), of 35 hours and “massive hiring of civil servants“ of a France which has, according to him, “financed on credit the promises of all those who refuse economic realities“.
The hearing also allowed the former Minister of Economy and Finance to defend his record and that of the governments in which he participated: “The only lasting solution is in the in-depth transformation of our economic and social model, in seven years we have undertaken this project“he declared, mentioning, for example, the creation of 2.5 million jobs, the reform of pensions and the labor market, or even tax cuts. Here again, Bruno Le Maire blamed the deputies: “In seven days, with censorship, you derailed France again.“
According to him, without strong choices, France sera “slowly but surely (…) strangled by the noose of interest rates“. Adding as a sentence: “France does not risk sudden death, France risks slow death“.
“Flagrant crime of bankruptcy”
Of the remarks with indictment accents against the oppositions, but also targeting part of the former “common base” of Michel Barnier, little appreciated by many deputies of the finance committee. “We are the representatives of the French people, and we exercise our constitutional mission of control (…) you cannot say today, 'who are you to judge?'“reacted in particular on co-rapporteur of the commission of inquiry, Eric Ciotti (Union of Rights for the Republic). “I dare to remind you that you are more than responsible [de la situation actuelle]you are responsible for it“, also declared the MP for Alpes-Maritimes.
For his part, Jean-Philippe Tanguy (National gathering) joked about the “flagrante delicto of bankruptcy” which Bruno Le Maire must face: “We try to understand how people as brilliant and intelligent as you could both do everything well and fail at everything at the same time ?“
Others, like Estelle Mercier (Socialists) et Danielle Simonnet (Ecologist and Social) deplored the “lack of humility” of the former minister, while the chairman of the finance and investigation committee, Eric Coquerel (LFI)a mis in cause the “supply policy” applied since 2017 : “It did not have the effects that you announced to us (…) 38% of commercial job creations since 2017 are in fact apprentices.“
Bruno Le Maire responded to all the questions, without conceding anything, or almost. Incidentally, the former minister explained that he never considered resigning because “resignation is not an option when times are hard and above all it is only considered when we have a disagreement with a strategic objective“But, he specifies, “there has never been any disagreement with the President of the Republic or with his Prime Ministers“.
A few seconds before the hearing closed, Bruno Le Maire said he only had one “regret” : “On spending, no doubt we could have gone further in savings and in the reorganization of public spending in France“.
