the leaders of the LR groups in Parliament boycott the meeting in Bercy devoted to economies

Bruno Le Maire brings together the parliamentary groups of the Assembly and the Senate on Thursday afternoon in Bercy to talk about savings. But the LR leaders will be conspicuous by their absence.

All the presidents of the parliamentary groups in the Assembly and the Senate are invited to a meeting on Thursday March 28 in the afternoon in Bercy to hunt for savings. But LR Olivier Marleix and Bruno Retailleau will practice the empty chair policy. They send no one to represent them, while the rebellious Mathilde Panot goes there, and Marine Le Pen or the socialist Boris Vallaud send lieutenants. On Olivier Marleix’s side, the line is: “we are not going to fall into the trap of looking for savings, and therefore bad news, instead of the government!”

The right, however, remains attached to the restoration of public finances but the LR believe that Bruno Le Maire takes them “for fools” says a deputy because “he has had our counter-budget for months with 25 billion savings”. “He knows what we are offering, do we support on the Senate side, so we’re not going to listen to him repeat that we need to get out of our addiction to public spending.”. On the right, at the moment, the time is rather to threaten to bring down the government with a motion of censure than to co-construct. An LR executive ironically renames Bruno Le Maire “the great economist”... and Emmanuel Macron, the “Garcimore of finance, with magic tricks that fail all the time”.

Bercy lists the expenses proposed by LR

At Bercy we can’t believe this absence of LR leaders. According to someone close to Bruno Le Maire, “boycotting a meeting on savings when your name is LR is hot, it shows that they have nothing serious to present”. The Minister of the Economy, for his part, does not miss an opportunity to bombard his former family, recalling that on pension reform the government could not count on the right. To drive the point home, Bercy compiled all the expenses proposed by LR last fall, at the time of the budget. Amount of the bill: 124 billion, between rebate on fuel and other reduction in VAT on housing renovation.

There will still be an LR, very alone, in the room. Function requires, the general rapporteur of the finance committee in the Senate, Jean-François Husson will be there. He returns as a guest this time, after carrying out a surprise check at Bercy last Thursday. This was to see when the ministry had been alerted to the deficit slippage. Bruno Le Maire has already paid him back on Wednesday by telling the Senate that this elected official had asked after the Covid, like many others, to extend the aid… “The Mayor has been the big boss for seven years, LR replica, does that authorize him to hold us responsible?” In short, it’s blow for blow between the right and the minister.