The Senate reactivates its information mission on the deterioration of public finances in 2024, with a new cycle of hearings. The former Prime Ministers, Gabriel Attal and Élisabeth Borne, but also the former Bercy ministers, Bruno Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave, will be questioned this week and next week by senators on their management of public funds when they were in office .
With its agenda, the Senate is taking by surprise that of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, which launched a commission of inquiry on the same subject. But this has only just been formed, with the appointment of rapporteurs Éric Ciotti (UDR) and Matthieu Lefèvre (EPR) last Wednesday, so it has not yet been able to hold any hearings. “We’ve already done the job. We will complete it. And the truth will come! » a senator confided to us, smiling, a few weeks ago.
First to go to the grill of the High Assembly, Thursday, November 7 at 8 a.m. : Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy from 2017 to 2024, unprecedented longevity under the Fifth Republic. The former tenant of Bercy attracted numerous criticisms in the Senate. At the time of his departure, centrist senator Vincent Delahaye spoke of “the catastrophic situation” left by the minister. “Bruno Le Maire takes the liberty of making recommendations, I am quite surprised. I would keep a low profile if I had a record like this.”
The former Minister of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, will be heard the same day at 3:30 p.m.. Will follow the former Prime Ministers, Gabriel Attal Friday, November 8 at 9 a.m.then Élisabeth Borne, Friday, November 15 at 3 p.m..
The “recklessness” of the government
The Senate Finance Committee opened an information mission last March on the budgetary slippage observed between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. In their conclusions, delivered in June, the elected officials accuse the government for not having transmitted to parliamentarians, as required by law, the new Treasury estimates on the increase in the deficit. They particularly highlight the “recklessness” of the executive in its economic forecasts. In mid-October, the senators decided to continue their work, while the public deficit should finally reach 6.1% of GDP at the end of the year, far from the 4.4% voted in the last finance bill.
