"The minister of the thing that messed up before me": Amélie de Montchalin, the (very) free spirit in charge of the budget
This week, the Minister of Public Accounts begins the final political consultations on the budget she must finalize before July 15. If she misses her mark, the entire government will fall.
By Thomas SouliéFifth floor of Bercy (Paris 12th). Amélie de Montchalin's office is as immense as it is tidy and impersonal. In front of her are stacks of blue-labeled files and no photos of her three children. "That way, I can leave in twenty-four hours," the Minister of Public Accounts assures seriously. "I need to feel that it's precarious."
Does she need this to feel it and know it? Without a majority in the Assembly and with an unpopular Prime Minister, the tenant of Bercy must succeed in the impossible, where the Barnier government failed: the vote on a budget for the country. "I'm constantly told that I'm the minister of the thing that failed before me," she says bluntly. "Yes, I've been under maximum pressure since the first minute here, but I'm not afraid. I'm not resigned to censorship ."
Le Parisien
