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(Bloomberg) — French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Antoine Armand as finance minister, thrusting a 33-year-old with limited political experience into an urgent budget battle in which he must bring fiscal discipline while maintaining tacit support from the far right to avoid government collapse.
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He will be flanked as budget minister by Laurent Saint-Martin, according to a statement read out by the president’s chief of staff on Saturday. The 39-year-old head of Business France, which promotes export growth and foreign investment, is a former general rapporteur for the budget in parliament.
The priority for Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s administration will be to present a budget bill for next year and tackle France’s galloping deficit. Yet the task is complicated as Macron’s surprise June decision to call a snap legislative vote after defeat by Marine Le Pen’s far-right party in European elections left a deeply divided National Assembly with no group close to a majority.
In an indication of the extent of tensions between political parties, Macron took two months before choosing a new premier outside his centrist group, while Barnier, of the conservative Republicans, needed more than two weeks of intensive consultations to come up with a list of ministers.
Getting the balance right in his cabinet is crucial for the survival of the administration, which could easily be toppled by a no-confidence vote in the lower house. Parliamentary math means Le Pen, whose National Rally won the most seats of any party, can influence whether such a motion brought by left-wing parties succeeds.
Armand, whose title includes finance, the economy and industry, is a central piece in a political puzzle that also saw Macron appoint Republicans Senate leader Bruno Retailleau as interior minister in a cabinet that marks an overall shift to the right.
The announcement also brings an end to weeks of uncertainty after the decision to call snap elections triggered turmoil in bond markets, driving up France’s borrowing costs compared with other European countries as investors fretted about the impact on public finances. The fiscal situation has deteriorated further over the summer under the watch of a caretaker government.
Without new measures to curb spending or increase tax, France’s budget deficit could reach 6% of economic output this year, Les Echos reported on Friday, citing new forecasts from the Finance Ministry. This would be double the 3% limit under European Union fiscal rules.
Armand supported Macron’s 2017 election campaign and went on to run a local branch of the president’s party in the Haute-Savoie region bordering Switzerland, before winning a seat in the 2022 legislative elections.
Like Macron, Armand is a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Nationale d’Administration. He began his career at the Finance Ministry, working on industry, the management of the Covid crisis and the energy transition.
Armand regained his seat in parliament in the snap elections, and in July was elected to chair of the National Assembly’s economy commission, a post he will leave after being appointed minister.
On his website, Armand says he rejects politics that is focused on party labels rather than getting results.
“I’ve alway been passionate about politics — in the noble meaning of the word,” Armand wrote.
(Updates with details of other appointments starting from second paragraph.)
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