Laurent Saint-Martin, an economic figure of Macronism in the Budget

Little known to the general public, the new Minister of Budget and Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin, working under Prime Minister Michel Barnier, is a loyal follower of Emmanuel Macron, a specialist in budgets and businesses, who is making his return to politics after several electoral defeats.

“Be opportunistic in this period of political uncertainty,” declared at the end of August the man who has been heading Business France since January 2023, an agency that helps French companies develop abroad.

The appeal was then aimed at encouraging French companies to “conquer markets abroad”. But it could also echo his personal journey.

At 39, this model student of Macronie has experienced a meteoric rise since his election as deputy for Val-de-Marne in 2017, in a constituency long acquired by the left.

Well-dressed and urbane, sky-blue eyes, a graduate of a top 5 business school who went through a left-leaning Strauss-Kahnian think tank: Laurent Saint-Martin embodies a certain idea of ​​the “new world” while defending himself from any arrogance.

Elected in the wake of his victory in 2017 as general rapporteur of the State budget, a prestigious and sensitive position, he voluntarily left his place initially to the experienced radical MP Joël Giraud.

But this is only a postponement. In January 2020, following Mr. Giraud’s departure from the government, Mr. Saint-Martin succeeded him.

As he enters Bercy with the mission of cleaning up exceptionally degraded public accounts, the former general budget rapporteur has been at the forefront of the “whatever the cost” policy to deal with the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“France’s handling of the crisis is exemplary from an economic point of view. The results are good, very good,” confided the man who is never stingy with good points when it comes to the action of the executive.

For LFI MP Eric Coquerel, who has chaired the Finance Committee since 2022, Laurent-Saint-Martin “is rather intelligent and courteous”, but “he stays in line, he is a good soldier of Macronism.”

– Tax cuts and “tax justice” –

A member of the executive board of La République en Marche, he was chosen as the head of the Paris region list for the presidential party in the 2021 regional elections, after the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, who had long been tipped to run, had withdrawn.

He finally finished 4th in the second round of the election, obtaining 9.62% of the vote and sat on the regional council chaired by LR Valérie Pécresse.

Treasurer of candidate Macron’s presidential campaign in 2022, the native of Toulouse suffered a second electoral setback when he was beaten by the Insoumis Louis Boyard in the second round of the legislative elections in June 2022.

Appointed in the meantime as Director General of Business France, he will not be running in the early legislative elections at the beginning of summer 2024, marked by the loss of the relative majority for the presidential camp.

Within the agency for export assistance and promotion of France to foreign investors, Laurent Saint-Martin is reconnecting with an economic fabric that he had already worked with before 2017, notably by working at the public investment bank Bpifrance and for the stock market operator Euronext.

Without radically distancing himself from politics: during the Choose France summits organised by the Elysée, he willingly praises the assets of France to the international business community.

A staunch supporter of lower taxes, having attended the Toulouse alternative left high school, the new minister will have to deal with Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s desire for greater “tax justice”.

A fight that should not scare this rugby fan, former captain of the parliamentary XV.

© 2024 AFP

Did you like this article? Share it with your friends using the buttons below.