The words used were very strong. Too much, obviously. Tuesday morning, live on franceinfo, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said he wanted to “wage a total economic and financial war on Russia. (…) We are going to cause the collapse of the Russian economy.“
Financial crisis in Russia ➡️ “Sanctions are extremely effective. We are going to wage a total economic and financial war on Russia”, declares Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy. “We are going to cause the collapse of the Russian economy.” pic.twitter.com/uDCAvoNrMJ
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 1, 2022
A few hours later,years a statement sent to AFP, Tuesday, March 1, Bercy finally backpedaled, slipping that this term was “inappropriate”. The Minister of the Economy thus specifies that “the term war used this morning on franceinfo was inappropriate and does not correspond to our de-escalation strategy”adding that “We are not in conflict with the Russian people.”
A change in tone that comes a few hours after the tweet of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reacted to the French minister’s remarks: “A French minister said today that they had declared economic war on us. Pay attention to your speech, gentlemen! And do not forget that economic wars in the history of mankind have often turned into wars real”can we read on the social network.
shock wave in the government
Behind the scenes, however, the atmosphere is less firm. In the entourage of Bruno Le Maire, it is denied that the minister was slapped on the fingers. “Russia is on the side of the aggressors. Not us. The term war used by Bruno Le Maire has been exploited“, underlines one of his relatives.
Nevertheless, the interview with the Minister of the Economy on Tuesday morning caused a shock wave within the government. If the head of state did not speak personally with his minister, there were many contacts between Emmanuel Macron’s entourage and the cabinet of Bruno le Maire, throughout the morning. Before and after the former Russian president’s tweet.
According to several sources within the executive, Matignon intervened to coordinate and supervise with Bercy the rectification of Bruno the Mayor sent to the France Presse agency. A way of ensuring for the head of government that, this time, the words used were the right ones.