No longer in government, he does not directly play his role, Bruno Le Maire. Became a teacher again. After literature in his youth, the economy in Switzerland, in Lausanne. But not retired from politics either, always with one foot at Renaissance, he travels the country to present legions of honor here and there.
Hence the importance of taking care of its image, its reputation, its balance sheet, if it were to play the leading roles again in 2027 (or before).
Exactly, what was his defense?
Twist this idea that Bercy would not have said everything when things were going badly… The dropout, explains the former minister, was “sudden and unpredictable”. The models have malfunctioned, under the effect of post-Covid inflation.
Bruno Le Maire speaks of a “serious technical error”: a failure of 41 billion euros compared to revenue forecasts!
But from February: action. With the cancellation of 10 billion euros of credit. Then this intense lobbying for an amending finance law which would have made it possible to save another 15 billion. Idea rejected at Matignon and at the Elysée.
Bruno Le Maire’s defense is also the attack?
In June and July, Bruno Le Maire recalled that he had a plan, turnkey, to contain the deficit without increasing taxes. By playing on two taxes, energy rents and share buybacks. Follow his gaze: if he had really wanted to, then Michel Barnier could have posted a deficit of 5.5% and not 6.1% for this year.
Matignon’s reaction?
Angry… Return to sender! Those close to the Prime Minister recall that the government was appointed on September 21: a record deadline to deal with the budgetary emergency. It is impossible to introduce an amending finance law in such a short time. To believe this would be “disinformation”.
We are far from appeasement!
What makes this exercise of transparency very delicate is that on the one hand, you have Bruno Le Maire who, through his 7 years of ministry at Bercy, wants to save what remains of Macronism: the economic heritage, the employment, supply policy. And on the other, the oppositions who are looking for the loophole to definitively bury Macronism.
Problem: the Barnier government is the fusion of the right and the survivors of Macronism! Hence the daily sparks in the Assembly, in the “common base”… Where the desire to settle scores, literally and figuratively, often prevails over the need to vote together.
And this is only the beginning of the discomfort?
Yes, since in reality, you will have 3 reports.
The Senate’s flash mission, which continues tomorrow with the hearing of Gabriel Attal. The commission of inquiry of deputies, which has not yet started its work. And the Court of Auditors, which this slippage has stunned, internally. Report expected within 6 to 7 months.
With, already, recommendations: since Bercy has failed in its forecasts, why not transfer this competence to an independent organization?
So, to answer your question: Bruno Le Maire is only just beginning his audition tour, he will continue to hammer home “his” truth. But it is a path of the cross, so convenient is it, in public opinion, to pass the blame for the deficit on to one’s predecessors.
There remains a flaw with Bruno Le Maire: if the deterioration of the accounts was so serious in the spring, if there was absolutely a need for a corrective finance law, a law that the former minister requested, in vain, from Gabriel Attal and Emmanuel Macron.. Why didn’t you resign?
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