“Bruno gets”: when Le Maire responds sharply to the left who nickname him “Bruno asks”

Everyone knows that politics is a matter of language. And in this little game, the left-wing opposition to the government of Élisabeth Borne has found a new solution: giving the Minister of the Economy and Finance the nickname “Bruno Demands”. Understand: Bruno Le Maire “asks” businesses, but never imposes anything on them. The environmentalist deputy Julien Bayou used this nickname on LCI Tuesday morning, just like his counterparts Manuel Bompard or Clémence Guetté of LFI before him on other sets. Even a humorous account on X (formerly Twitter) has the name “Bruno Demande”.

The minister reacted Tuesday morning to this mocking nickname. “We could have another nickname, it’s “Bruno gets”,” he declared on LCI, before detailing two measures taken by private companies after calls from him: the capping of fuel prices at 1.99 euros in TotalEnergies' 3,400 service stations and the anticipation of commercial negotiations between manufacturers and distributors. “I do not wish, I do not ask: I obtain,” he insisted.

However, there are requests that companies do not comply with and Bruno Le Maire recognized this. “When I don’t get it, I don’t hesitate to use the weapons that are at my disposal,” defended the Minister of the Economy. To support this argument, he used the example of “surplus profits” of companies, particularly motorways, which will be subject to a tax in the next finance bill.

Bruno Le Maire did not fail to criticize, in passing, the left-wing elected officials behind this nickname. “We know well that the philosophy of Julien Bayou and his friends is to impose everything on everyone. It is the control of everything and everyone, including private companies and the whole of society,” replied the Minister of the Economy. And to oppose them with a method based on “dialogue” rather than the balance of power: “I think we can build solutions that are strong and effective through dialogue.”