Jacques Serais, Ugo Pascolo, with AFP
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5:14 p.m., March 30, 2022
For ten days and the publication of a Senate report, the McKinsey affair has disrupted the campaign already shortened by Emmanuel Macron. To the point that the Head of State had to bang his fist on the table at the start of the week. With less than two weeks before the first round, will the case become a thorn in the side of the president-candidate?
The government has “no lesson to receive in the fight against tax optimization”. The response of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, to the suspicions of tax optimization weighing on French subsidiaries of the McKinsey firm was scathing this Wednesday morning at the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk. For this lieutenant of Emmanuel Macron in the presidential campaign, the Senate report published ten days ago has a limited impact, since Bercy “undertook a tax audit” on the McKinsey firm “even before” said report from the upper chamber of Parliament.
“The proof of the immense disarray of the opposition”
Ten days before a first round, the polls of which give Emmanuel Macron the clear winner, Bruno Le Maire recalled on Europe 1 the role of his champion in the fight against tax evasion over the past five years, before crushing his opponents. For the Minister, the McKinsey affair is “proof of the immense disarray of the opposition (…) who are elevating cases that do not exist”.
Words that echo those of the Head of State, since Emmanuel Macron had banged his fist on the table on Monday, during his trip to Dijon. “If there is evidence of manipulation, let it go to the criminal courts.”
But behind the firm answers and the displayed serenity of the troops of the president-candidate, an adviser notes all the same that the oppositions “have succeeded in making this affair a subject of campaign”. “From now on, the oppositions stick it to us like a band-aid and there is not an interview without us being questioned on the subject. We may answer each time, that is not enough to extinguish the controversy”, plague another.
“For the moment it does not affect public opinion”
Some in the president’s entourage, however, point out that “for the moment it agitates the microcosm, but it does not affect public opinion”. This does not prevent “being careful, because it can tip over”, explains for his part a heavyweight from the camp of the outgoing president.
Hence the press conference organized this Wednesday at 7 p.m. by Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of the Public Service, and Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Public Accounts. The latter will answer journalists’ questions on the subject of State recourse to consulting firms. If the intention is to explain, this step is also proof of a certain concern at the highest level of the State.