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Bruno Le Maire.
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France’s departing finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, is moving to Switzerland as a lecturer.
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He will teach economics and geopolitics at the University of Lausanne, Le Maire said. However, he will remain living in France.
Following the parliamentary elections and the appointment of Michel Barnier as the new French prime minister, the appointment of a new government in France is imminent. Le Maire had previously announced that he would not continue in office.
In a farewell speech, Le Maire, 55, who belongs to President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, referred to the economic progress made in France during his time in office since 2017.
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The re-industrialisation of the country had been set in motion and, contrary to the trend of French bashing, the disparagement of France from an economic perspective, France had become the most attractive business location in Europe, he claimed. Unemployment had fallen and growth in France was higher than in the UK, Italy and Germany, he said.
However, Le Maire is leaving office with mixed results.
The state of France’s public finances has recently deteriorated considerably. The EU Commission is already pursuing deficit proceedings against France due to excessive new borrowing. The goal of gradually bringing new borrowing back below the European limit of 3% now seems a long way off. With a public debt level of 110% of gross domestic product, France remains one of the worst performers in the eurozone.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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