Minister Laurent Saint-Martin on the front line of the field of chaos – Libération

Attached to the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, the Minister responsible for the Budget and faithful Macronist must defend with his people, grouped in a fragile “central bloc”, a break with their fiscal doctrine.

The last time he defended a finance bill (PLF), Laurent Saint-Martin walked lightly to the podium of the National Assembly. On December 15, 2021, the general budget rapporteur praises a text “protection and investment”, applauds the continued reductions in corporate tax and so-called “production” taxes, praises the recovery plan and the “tariff shield” dedicated to cushioning the energy shock. While closing Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term with this satisfaction, the Renaissance deputy from Val-de-Marne senses that in the future, it will be necessary “meeting important challenges in terms of public finances”. Do you fit? “whatever it costs” on a dry diet.

“A man of complicated missions”

This Monday, October 21, by opening the discussion, in a public session, on the PLF for 2025, the now minister responsible for the Budget will serve the deputies a much bitter potion. Faced with the spectacular slippage in the public deficit, expected at 6.1% of GDP, the Barnier government is counting on an effort of 60 billion euros. Propelled to Bercy, the thirty-year-old is preparing, this time, to wear a “necessity, recovery budget” which undermines the Macronian doctrine of fiscal stability. Another time, another hemicycle. Elected deputy in 2017, Saint-Martin experienced the reign of walkers in an absolute majority