“Is there a taboo on this, otherwise I say what I think?” It’s called putting your foot down and your feet, that day, aren’t just anyone’s feet. On Saturday February 9, Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior though he may be, leaves security questions aside to question, and in what way, the government’s financial choices. We have to make savings, of course, but how and what? The one who sometimes grumbles in private against “Lemairism” takes care of his figure: he does not want social spending to be hit the hardest. And he plays politics: a budgetary collective, in the middle of spring? Like him, Gabriel Attal rejects the idea, believing that it would only be necessary if tax measures had to be taken.
A month has passed and the situation is even worse. This Tuesday, the president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, gives a warning shot. In The echoes, he warns that “saving efforts unprecedented in recent history are necessary”. The accounts are in the red.
In the government, there is at least one who appreciated Moscovici’s shocking interview. Bruno Le Maire knows it, he is in the line of fire because he continues to sound the alarm. He believes that “the five-year term is at a crossroads” and that there is a threat of going backwards. However, after seven years spent at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, he does not want to see his record tainted by devastating figures. In two weeks, INSEE will give the exact extent of the public deficit, and it will not be a pretty sight. Just before the European elections, France’s rating will undoubtedly be downgraded by the agencies, we no longer believe in miracles at Bercy. “We are going to take a hit on the theme “we were told that Macron was the Mozart of finance”, anticipates a deputy. There is danger in the house. But the approach of the ballot like the prospect of the Olympic Games do not encourage you to put away the checkbook.
So, with his collaborators, the Minister of the Economy and Finance plays the provocateur. Reduce deficits? “It’s the simplest subject I have to deal with, it’s a question of will and choice.” Is the State receiving less revenue? He must therefore spend less. Medical transport, personal training account, long-term illnesses: the other members of the government turn up their noses, he has no heart to speak. “Only one appeared in front of 8 million viewers at TF1’s 20 Hours to announce the rise in electricity prices, when all the others hid: it’s him,” underlines a close friend of Bruno Le Maire . The message is simple: those addicted to public spending are the others, he wants to embody courage. The others, all the others? “In the end, Emmanuel Macron will prefer not to make a lot of savings,” guesses one of his former ministers who knows him by heart.
A book to be published before the Europeans
The majority are starting to waver, who criticize Bruno Le Maire for cutting environmental spending (the famous MaPrimRenov) and for having been insincere or too optimistic in his growth forecasts. The other day, when the minister resumed all his statements before the Renaissance group in the Assembly, a deputy immediately noted: “He prepares his parachute in case of a problem. He neither wants to be the one who takes the wall in full figure, nor be the one who is blamed for not having alerted.” Another elected official does not hide his fears, hearing about the savings to be made: “It should not be surprising that we are attacked on the theme: the government is preparing an austerity plan for the day after the Europeans. It is even curious that the RN is not more offensive on the subject.”
Gérald Darmanin is not the last to make his little music heard with his concept of sharing. “By sharing the misery, we will have misery for everyone,” retorts a supporter of Bruno Le Maire. This shows that the next debates promise to be heated. Obviously an increase in taxation will be put forward again by some, Bruno Le Maire will make it a casus belli – is he certain to win the fight?
So, just to set a date, he multiplies the offensives. On March 19, he will be in Berlin and will speak just after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to develop the economic strategy that Europe must implement at all costs, according to him, under penalty of completely losing its footing in international competition and experience a humiliating relegation. This will be his way of participating fully in the campaign for the European elections.
He should then publish a book before June 9: speak truthfully rather than try to mollify people, that’s how he wants the French to see him. He will praise the protective State rather than the welfare State, which suggests that free everything for all is a horizon. Will think of France at thirty years old, he who entered politics 22 years ago and participated in nearly 700 councils of ministers. Bruno Le Maire portrays his character. This is how he decided to place his candidacy in the 2027 landscape.
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