The youngest of the government does not have much time to settle. Two crucial texts must be presented on June 29 in the Council of Ministers: the amending finance bill and the one on purchasing power. Both will be debated this summer in Parliament. And both depend on him. In a few weeks, Gabriel Attal must not only develop these texts from a budgetary point of view, and be able to defend them, paragraph by paragraph, in front of the deputies and senators.
Obviously, he will not be alone on the benches of the Assembly or the Senate. His minister, Bruno Le Maire, will also be widely present. Except that the latter has just spent five years at Bercy, he knows this universe perfectly, when Gabriel Attal discovers it.
To catch up, the new Minister of Public Accounts is working hard. He first met the directors of the central administration who depend on him, such as the Treasury, customs, or Tracfin, in particular responsible for the fight against money laundering. At the moment, we are told, the days are devoted to meetings “very advanced” on the two texts to come. Small difficulty: his cabinet is not completely stabilized, recruitments are in progress.
In private, his entourage wants to convince precisely that the minister is not starting from zero, that he has a little experience in budgetary matters, in particular because the transversality of his previous role, the spokesperson, had prepared him for these new functions. “He was associated with all the arbitration meetings with the President and the Prime Minister”recalls a relative. “He attended all the ‘whatever it takes’ discussions, the price shield, and was even at the first meetings on purchasing power”confides an adviser. “In any case, he is not asked to be the first accountant in Francespecifies a framework of the majority. It is better to have political sense and gain in technicality than the opposite.”
In the majority, they are some to expect that it shakes at the beginning, while praising the qualities of the youngest of the government. “If he gets out of it, he can aim for the Elysée in 2027”even slips a leader of En Marche, when another lists his illustrious predecessors: Giscard d’Estaing, Chirac, Sarkozy…
In any case, do not expect to see Attal disappear from the screens. According to our information, the President of the Republic asked him to maintain political visibility, to remain very present in the media.