Arthur De Laborde / Photo credit: SARAH MEYSSONNIER / POOL / AFP and BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
Bercy will present this Wednesday the broad outlines of France’s stability program, which will be examined on April 17 in the Council of Ministers before being sent to Brussels. New objectives, despite an unprecedented context of tensions between Emmanuel Macron and Bruno Le Maire. The head of state seems somewhat annoyed by his Minister of the Economy, having taken some liberties.
Is there water in the gas at Bercy? While the public deficit reached 5.5% of GDP in 2023, well above the 4.9% expected by the government and public revenues increased by only 2% in 2023 – after 7.4% in 2022 – the Ministry of the Economy seems to be in crisis. And Bruno Le Maire is multiplying the announcements. Bercy will present this Wednesday the broad outlines of France’s stability program, which will be examined on April 17 in the Council of Ministers before being sent to Brussels.
This document will outline the new budgetary trajectory between now and the end of the five-year term and should be accompanied by a new savings plan. New objectives revealed in a context of unprecedented tensions between Emmanuel Macron and Bruno Le Maire. The Head of State is somewhat annoyed by his Minister of the Economy, who is launching proposals here and there to fill the budgetary hole without waiting for arbitration.
An “individualistic” and “clumsy” method
If at the Élysée, we assure that a departure of Bruno Le Maire is not on the agenda, his method considered individualistic and clumsy exasperates… Last subject of tension: the idea of submitting an amending budget to Parliament . The boss of Bercy pleaded in favor of this scenario before Emmanuel Macron closed the door on Monday in front of the heavyweights of the majority. Bruno Le Maire had however been reframed by the president around two weeks ago. “Bruno, you’ve been here for seven years!” he told him to remind him of his share of responsibility in the slippage of public accounts.
“But he continued to play the white knight,” alarms someone close to the head of state. “Under the guise of wanting to avoid it, he is in reality seeking the motion of censure so that the government is overthrown,” he analyzes, putting forward two hypotheses. “Either he wants to leave the government for political reasons without being blamed for the failure of public finance management… or he wants to position himself to take Gabriel Attal’s place.”