Le “whatever it takes” is dead, long live “whatever it costs”! For months, if not years, the government and Bercy have been trying to explain that spending billions of euros to alleviate the successive crises that are shaking the country is not only no longer viable, but no longer on the agenda. . “The ‘whatever the cost’ is over! », assured the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, mask on his face, during the Medef summer universities, in… August 2021.
A waste of time: after the various waves of the health crisis, which led to the explosion of the Covid debt – some 150 billion euros in total – the costly campaign promises of Emmanuel Macron for the presidential election in the spring of 2022, then the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, each time postponed the return to budgetary virtue.
Even if no one, on the political scene, has thought of criticizing the economic management of the pandemic or the aid for the payment of gas and electricity bills, the trap has closed on the government: how to explain to French people watered for three years on “magic money” that, suddenly, the coffers are empty for new aid? Especially since the subject of inflation, and its political corollary, purchasing power, continue to stick to the head of state’s skin like Captain Haddock’s band-aid.
The latest episode, however, seemed to mark a change in the government’s strategy: faced with soaring food prices, in the middle of the Agricultural Show, Emmanuel Macron found himself caught between the recriminations of industrialists and farmers on the one hand, and the alerts of large retailers on the other hand, each passing the buck as to possible responsibility for the bright red color of receipts. A few days before the social mobilization of the 7 mars, it was imperative to find a political solution.
Amazing benefits
This was done on Monday March 6, after several days of lying poker between the interested parties, which allowed Bruno Le Maire to announce that the distributors will pay “several hundred million euros” out of pocket to lower their prices. And what does it matter that most of the major retailers have already orchestrated their own promotional campaigns or that the verification of these commitments retailer by retailer comes from wishful thinking: this has enabled the Minister to announce a « trimestre anti-inflation »… at a lower cost to the State.
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