It’s grandstand season. Less than two weeks before the ballot, as with every election, texts of support are beginning to circulate in the community of economists. One is in favor of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate of La France insoumise, who has enjoyed buoyant momentum in the polls for several weeks. The other in support of Emmanuel Macron, like the one published in his favor shortly before the first round, in 2017, signed by forty economists seeing in him the only candidate capable of laying the foundations for a ” new economic growth ». This time, however, the initiative seems to have had more difficulty in bringing together beyond the initial circle of Macronist figures seduced five years ago. Some distanced themselves, others, who had perhaps hoped for a comeback, were disappointed. It is not certain that a text will ultimately be disseminated.
In a campaign that struggled to take off to finally focus on the theme of purchasing power, economists were, in fact, much less present than in 2017 in the teams of candidates, and in the production of projects. . Emmanuel Macron then entrusted the former adviser to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the economist Jean Pisani-Ferry, who chaired France Strategy, with the management of his program. Going so far as to integrate him full-time into his campaign team, alongside other academic figures such as Philippe Aghion, Philippe Martin or Marc Ferracci: a true American-style “brain-trust”, and staged as Phone. Five years later, they are credited with several measures put in place during the five-year term, such as the “flat tax” on capital income or the apprenticeship reform.
The most believable
Nothing like this in the Macronist organization chart version 2022. The coordination of the program was entrusted to the tandem David Amiel-Pierre Bouillon, two young “techno” people responsible for filtering the ideas brought by the various working groups, before a final sorting operated by the current secretary of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler. The university and academic world is invited to contribute, but without entering the first circle, with the exception of Marc Ferracci, who joined the executive after 2017 by becoming an adviser to the Ministry of Labor, then to Matignon. “Macron does not necessarily need to integrate economists like in 2017, he makes his honey from what comes back to him through different channels, describes Philippe Aghion, support from the start. He needs to develop a few messages, not to make 200 proposals like in 2017. If it’s too detailed, we risk asking him why he didn’t do it before. »
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