This is not the best known name of the ministers appointed on December 23. However, his task promises to be decisive for the future of the Bayrou government. Without delay, Éric Lombard, 66, took up his duties as Minister of the Economy and Finance on Monday evening, in an express transfer of power. He immediately mentioned the main challenge awaiting him: “Treat our endemic disease, the deficit. »
With a budgetary imbalance expected to exceed 6% in 2024, the general director of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) is expected to arrive crowned with his expertise. At the head of this key institution for the presence of the State in the economy, since 2017 he has orchestrated, among other things, the financing of social housing, local authority projects and the ecological transition, public participation in certain businesses, support for innovation, etc.
From this mandate, he can remember as a success the creation of the Bank of Territories, to help local authorities finance their projects, the recovery of Orpea (now Emeis) after the scandal of revelations on the poor treatment of residents in nursing homes , or the merger between CNP Assurances and La Banque Postale. Above all, it leaves the CDC with nearly 4 billion euros in budget surplus released in 2023.
A dense journey at Paribas
A graduate of HEC, Éric Lombard does not, however, have the profile of the classic senior civil servant. Before taking over as head of the Caisse des Dépôts, this son of Trojan industrialists spent most of his career in finance. Joining the Paribas bank in 1981, he held several positions, notably in mergers and acquisitions, up to that of CEO of the group's insurance branch, BNP Paribas Cardif, between 2006 and 2013. A role that he then took on at the insurer Generali France until 2017.
This banking career was chosen in particular at Bercy to reassure a world of finance in which doubts about France's budgetary credibility are emerging. On December 13, the rating agency Moody's downgraded the French debt rating as a result of political instability. Éric Lombard must therefore show a serious face in the storm.
Next to the profiles of political heavyweights – Élisabeth Borne, Gérald Darmanin, Manuel Valls – he could appear as a technician. Although he has only had one elected mandate (municipal councilor of Fontenay-sous-Bois, in Val-de-Marne, from 1995 to 2001), the now ex-boss of Caisse des Dépôts has nevertheless not never been far from politics.
Rocardian by training, Macronist by adoption
First with this parenthesis in his career at Paribas: between 1989 and 1993, he left the bank for a few years to join the ministerial cabinets of the socialists Louis Le Pensec then Michel Sapin, minister of the economy and finance. Later, he participated in the think tank “Les Gracques” which sought to direct the Socialist Party towards a more social-liberal line. During the 2007 presidential election, they campaigned alongside candidate Ségolène Royal for a rapprochement with the centrist party of… François Bayrou.
Faithful to Michel Rocard, Éric Lombard has never hidden his sympathy for the Macronist project. In 2022, already anticipated at Bercy, he said to himself “in line with Emmanuel Macron’s itinerary and project”. The left's take therefore remains modest for François Bayrou, who despite everything finds a minister of the economy potentially capable of not frightening the socialist ranks.
Eric Lombard's political interest also lies in his relations with local authorities. In seven years at the Caisse des Dépôts, he has built an important network of local elected officials. However, the latter had strongly mobilized against the budget cuts demanded of them by the Barnier government.
With Éric Lombard, François Bayrou sought a technical and non-divisive profile to reassure those at Bercy. Still, the mission of having a budget adopted by mid-February – the objective set by the Prime Minister – will be difficult. François Bayrou announced his wish to start again from Michel Barnier's text rejected in December, a position already criticized by part of the left. President of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, of which the CDC is the sole shareholder, since 2020, Éric Lombard is preparing to discover a new dramaturgy, at the forefront of the budgetary debate.
