“If our decisions had been taken, the deficit would be 5.5%”: Bruno Le Maire settles accounts with Michel Barnier

“Don’t count on me to dissociate myself from the men and women with whom I worked for seven years. » The former Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, played the tightrope walk this Thursday morning, during his hearing by the Senate information mission on the deterioration of public finances since 2023. Throughout the two and a half hours of During his exchanges with the parliamentarians, he was careful not to directly incriminate his former bosses, Emmanuel Macron in the lead.

On the other hand, he has settled scores with the current Prime Minister Michel Barnier, although he comes from his former political family. “I persist and sign: if all the decisions that we had left on the table with Thomas Cazenave had been taken, we would have a deficit of 5.5% in 2024 and not 6.1%. I challenge this figure, which is rehashed over and over again to explain that the previous government did everything wrong and that the new one does everything right. » There is no doubt that Bruno Le Maire arrived well prepared for this hearing which resembles a trial into budgetary laxity, only engaging in very rare my fault.

First of all, he justified himself at length on Bercy's inability to anticipate the sudden drop in tax revenues, which occurred at the end of 2023 and which continued in 2024. If he facially took responsibility for the action of his services, he made it clear that revenue forecasts were the prerogative of his administration. “Revenues are responsible for 95% of the slippage in the deficit and at no time does the minister intervene in defining their amount. » The subject would be purely technical and the flaws should be found in the statistical models used by Bercy. “There was no fault, no concealment or intention to deceive. There was basically a serious technical error for which we are paying the price. »

The senators remained doubtful about its subtle distinction with the official GDP growth forecast, which is the subject of political arbitration by the minister, in conjunction with the Elysée and Matignon. “Knowing your talents, I cannot imagine that the operation of Bercy is so complicated that it is not possible for a minister to put together everyone's forecasts”questioned Jean-François Husson, LR general rapporteur of the budget. But Bruno Le Maire assured that there was a “total waterproofing” on this subject in order to avoid any political manipulation. He even dared to make a daring comparison with personal tax files or information from customs intelligence services on drug trafficking.

BLM then defended itself for having wanted to sweep the dust under the carpet, by not immediately revising downward the deficit targets as the bad news fell at the start of 2024. “My role is to maintain the greatest ambition in terms of the deficit to ensure that everyone feels free to spend as they wish. The day you start lowering your goal, you lower the effort. It must be done in good time, which I believe I have done. » He then tried to show that he did his best to take measures to stop the accounts from slipping.

He acknowledged having lost certain arbitrations while assuming a form of solidarity with Emmanuel Macron. “If you fundamentally disagree with your authorities, you can always resign. However, we did not have one with the President of the Republic, we had the same objectives. We do not resign for a lost arbitration, a Minister of Finance would not last three weeks. » In particular, he proposed, in the summer of 2023, a lower increase in pensions and social benefits. But it was not followed. Same thing in spring 2024. While Bercy proposed to make 15 billion euros in savings, the Elysée will decide for 10 billion.

Above all, the Head of State will refuse to go through an amended finance bill, which would have required a debate in Parliament on the poor state of our public finances. “I have always believed that the subject should not be avoided. » The senators then pushed the ex-minister to his limits, asking him insistently if the choice of the Elysée was linked to the imminent holding of the European elections. “The answer is to be asked of those who took the arbitration”he evaded several times, citing neither the President nor the former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who will be heard tomorrow by the senators.

On the other hand, he was much sharper with his successor, Michel Barnier, who half-heartedly accused him of having left him with a disastrous budgetary situation. After recalling that he no longer had the political legitimacy and administrative levers to take the necessary measures after the dissolution, he criticized the current government for not having implemented the budget it had prepared. “This required being firmer with the ministers whom I saw threatening to resign if we ever lowered their budget. » An allusion in particular to the increase in Justice credits, obtained by Didier Migaud.

He also attacked the tax policy of his successor. “We have never given in to the ease of increasing taxes, this is a point that is close to my heart, nor to an increase in corporate tax during Covid nor to new taxes on savings of the French. I know too well that in France, we start by taxing the rich and we always end up taxing the middle classes, we target CAC 40 companies and we end with SMEs. » Despite the unprecedented slippage in public finances, Bruno Le Maire clings more than ever to his obsession with fiscal stability.