He will be one of the most exposed ministers in the Barnier government, if not the most exposed. At only 33 years old, the Savoyard Macronist MP Antoine Armand was appointed Minister of Economy and Industry this Saturday, September 21. In the Budget, another Macronist: Laurent Saint-Martin, 39 years old, placed under the direct authority of the Prime Minister.
The young Macronist MP Antoine Armand replaces Bruno Le Maire at Bercy, announced this Saturday the Secretary General of the ÉlyséeAlexis Kohler. Alongside him, the former Macronist MP Laurent Saint-Martin will be in charge of the Budget and Public Accounts, replacing Thomas Cazenave, and reporting directly to Prime Minister Michel Barnier, due to the 2025 budget.
Antoine Armand will, however, have under his authority another close friend of Emmanuel Macron: his colleague, a member of parliament for the French, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Marc Ferracci, 46, who has been appointed Minister Delegate for Industry in place of Roland Lescure, who also welcomed the appointment of his successor. This will also be the case for Laurence Garnier, 46, a very conservative Les Républicains senator from Loire-Atlantique, who was once announced for a portfolio dedicated to Families, and who has finally taken on the post of Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs. Originally from Lille, she is the head of the opposition in Nantes. She is close to Bruno Retailleau.
As for Marie-Agnès Poussier-Winsback and Marina Ferrari, also attached to Mr. Armand, they both bear the title of Minister Delegate, respectively for the Social and Solidarity Economy, for Profit-Sharing and Participation for the first, and for the Tourism Economy for the second.
Concretely, it will really be the Prime Minister who will manage this budgetary issue and who will in particular, as we know very well, have to try to negotiate with the European Commission to avoid having an austerity cure which could be dramatic for France.
Christopher Dembick, economist for asset manager Pictet Asset Management
A young man at the head of state in the state
Antoine Armand recently turned 33. In 2022, he was elected for the very first time, becoming a member of parliament for the 2nd constituency of Haute-Savoie. He was born in Paris; his great-grandfather was the senior civil servant Louis Armand, a member of the Resistance, an academic and president of the SNCF after the war. He graduated from the ENA in 2018, Georges Clémenceau class.
At the end of his studies, the new head of Bercy joined the General Inspectorate of Finance, before becoming in 2021 departmental referent of Emmanuel Macron’s party, La République en Marche, in Haute-Savoie where he was elected. He then participated in the design of the economic project of the outgoing president, with a view to the campaign for his re-election in 2022.
Last July, after his own re-election following the dissolution of the National Assembly, Antoine Armand was appointed chairman of the economic affairs committee of the lower house. In Annecy, he seemed set to enter the race for the 2026 municipal elections. “, he also specifies the Savoie region antenna of France Bleu.
The Echoes recall that Louis Armand had piloted the European Atomic Energy Community, Euratom, in its early days. A useful clarification since Antoine Armand published a book in February, The French Energy Wallafter having been rapporteur of the commission of inquiry into the reasons for the loss of sovereignty and energy independence of the country.
The person concerned would have liked to be able to introduce a law on France’s energy sovereignty. Last May, he created, together with a socialist MP, Marie-Noëlle Battistel, a fact-finding mission on a legal conflict that has been opposing Paris to the European Commission for ten years, concerning the future of French hydroelectric concessions.
Saint-Martin, Minister of a Budget of All Dangers
At his side at Bercy, therefore, is Laurent Saint-Martin. The fact that Laurent Saint-Martin is attached to Matignon testifies to the importance of the budget in the missions of Michel Barnier’s new government, whether it is short-lived or not. The new minister in charge of Public Accounts is presented by Agence France-Presse as a loyal follower of President Macron, ” budget and business specialist “.
For his part, he was elected deputy in the Val-de-Marne department during the head of state’s first term in 2017. And was immediately appointed by his peers as rapporteur general of the state budget, a position he ultimately left to Joël Giraud before taking it back in January 2020, when the latter was appointed to Jean Castex’s government.
Laurent Saint-Martin was therefore at the forefront of budget management during the Covid-19 epidemic and the famous ” whatever the cost ” theorized by a President Macron who left in ” war » against SARS-CoV-2. A member of the executive board of LaREM, he then took the lead of his party’s Ile-de-France list in the 2021 regional elections, coming 4th in the second round.
Joining the regional council led by Valérie Pécresse (LR), this native of Toulouse was then chosen as treasurer by Mr. Macron for the 2022 campaign. He was subsequently defeated in the legislative elections by Louis Boyard (LFI). And in January 2023, he took over as head of Business France, an agency supporting the development abroad of French companies.
As for Mr. Ferracci, he has been vice-president of the Ensemble pour la République group in the Assembly since 2022. A graduate of HEC, with a doctorate in economics, he participated in the president’s employment program in 2017, before becoming special advisor to Minister Muriel Pénicaud, inspiring the labor ordinances and the first reform of unemployment insurance.
Grandson of a president of the French Communist Party federation of South Corsica, Albert Ferracci, and son of Pierre Ferracci, close to the General Confederation of Workers, founder of the Alpha consulting group and incidentally president of Paris FC, he then joined the office of Jean Castex at Matignon, then France Relance. Then was rapporteur in the Assembly of the bill paving the way for a modulation of unemployment insurance according to the economic situation.
Marc Ferracci is also a graduate of HEC and a doctor of economics. He is a close friend of Emmanuel Macron, whom he met on the benches of Sciences Po Paris. He is the best man at the president’s wedding and vice versa. His partner Sophie, with whom he has two children, was also Mr. Macron’s chief of staff when he was Minister of the Economy.
Three men, but also three women
It should be noted that in this team, Laurence Garnier, a senator since 2020, is known more for her societal positions. In 2013, she opposed marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, supporting La Manif pour tous. In 2021, she then opposed the creation of an offense punishing practices related to said conversion therapies.
That same year, however, the new Secretary of State led the examination of a bill from the presidential party for “real economic and professional equality”, establishing quotas for women in management positions in large companies. But last February, she voted against the inclusion in the Constitution of the freedom to abort.
Very recently, this former executive of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group, vice-president of her region between 2015 and 2020, approved a Senate bill aimed at regulating gender transitions among minors, in particular by prohibiting the prescription of cross-hormones and by strictly conditioning the administration of “puberty blockers”.
Agnès Poussier-Winsback, who is taking up the post of Minister Delegate for the Social and Solidarity Economy, Profit-Sharing and Participation, is one of two members of Édouard Philippe’s Horizons party to join this government, along with Paul Christophe, Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Gender Equality.
As for Marina Ferrari from Savoy, 50, from François Bayrou’s MoDem and appointed Minister Delegate for the Tourism Economy, she has already been at Bercy since February. Until now, she was Secretary of State for Digital Affairs. She was elected MP in June 2022, then sitting on the Finance Committee within the Assembly.
Barely appointed, the Armand-Saint-Martin duo already has many challenges
First objective: present the draft finance law (PLF) for 2025 by October 9 at the latest. The equation is complicated. How can the budget be reduced by around thirty billion euros in savings to redress the public accounts without hindering growth? Two options are available to Bercy, namely cutting spending or increasing taxes.
In an interview with Sunday newspaperthe new Minister of Economy excludes the second track, even if he does not rule out, he says, levies ” exceptional and targeted “In recent days, Matignon has suggested that the highest incomes could be made to contribute with the introduction of a tax on super profits or another on dividends.
Several aids, particularly for businesses, could be eliminated. We need to reduce public spending and make it more efficient “, Mr. Armand specifies in the columns of JDD. Time is running out. With local government spending on the rise and tax revenues lower than expected this year, the deficit could reach 6% in 2024.