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Bruno Le Maire is married to painter Pauline Doussau de Bazignan, who is the mother of his four sons.[6][7][8] His wife was employed as his parliamentary assistant from 2007 to 2013.[9]
After leaving the ÉNA in 1998, Bruno Le Maire found a job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He eventually joined the team assisting the Secretary General of the Office of the President, Dominique de Villepin. He went on to a role of Foreign Affairs Advisor in the ministry in 2002,[10] then onto an advisor role in the Interior Ministry in 2004.[11]
Following several roles in Government including one working directly with Dominique de Villepin, Le Maire was chosen to be political advisor to the Prime Minister. In July 2006, Le Maire was appointed to the office of Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, replacing Pierre Mongin;[12] he remained in the role until De Villepin's departure from the office of Prime Minister.
From 2008, Le Maire served as a political advisor for the UMP.[1][5] He also serves as a council member of Évreux.[1][5]
Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fishing, 2009–2012
In June 2009, Le Maire became the new Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fishing in the government of François Fillon.[1][2] During his tenure at the Ministry, he created a new framework to modernize French agriculture, food and fishing. He also hosted the G20 Agriculture summit in 2011, which resulted in the creation of AMIS (Agricultural Market Information System). The main objective of AMIS is to monitor the global agricultural market under a rotating presidency. An intervention Forum can be convoked if the presiding country judges it necessary.
Candidacies for leadership roles
In August 2012, Le Maire announced that he would be a candidate for the presidency of the Union for a Popular Movement, competing against former Prime Minister François Fillon, Secretary General Jean-François Copé and former Minister of Ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet. He decided to develop a reformist line and to focus his campaign around four main axes:
Enhancing European economic integration
Strengthening French entrepreneurship and economy
Going back to the values of respect and authority in society
Renewing generations in political parties.
He failed however to obtain the necessary number of sponsors. In November 2014, Le Maire obtained 29.8% of votes against Nicolas Sarkozy in the election for the presidency of The Republicans (formerly UMP).
Le Maire was considered a serious challenger of the 2016 centre-right primary as the polls suggested he could be third-placed but got a poor result with 2.4%. He became LR candidate François Fillon’s international affairs spokesman, but resigned when Fillon was embroiled in a financial scandal during his campaign.[14] Le Maire has since distanced himself from his party, calling for the right to work constructively with Macron to ensure the president's five years in office succeeds and prevents the far-right National Front making further electoral inroads.[3]
On 17 May 2017, The Republicans Secretary-General Bernard Accoyer issued a statement that anyone from the party that was a member of the government was no longer a member, including Le Maire.[15][16]
Minister of the Economy and Finance, 2017–present
In May 2017, Le Maire was appointed by PresidentEmmanuel Macron Minister of the Economy in the first Philippe government. In this capacity, he is supported by Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin.[17] Shortly after being appointed as the Minister of the Economy, Le Maire became a member of La République En Marche! following conflicting reports that he was excluded from The Republicans party.[18][19] Le Maire was able to win reelection in his constituency after beating National Front candidate, Fabienne Delacour. He was appointed Minister of the Economy and Finance in the second Philippe government on 19 June 2017.
In September 2023, Le Maire took part in one of the German cabinet’s weekly meetings, chaired by ChancellorOlaf Scholz.[24] In October 2023, he participated in the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Scholz and Macron.[25][26]
Permanent Platform of Atomium Culture, member of the Advisory Board
Political positions
Domestic policy
During the conservative primaries in 2016, Le Maire shifted to the right, taking a tough stance on law and order and national identity issues. He called for the immediate expulsion of foreigners regarded as suspect by the security services, the deportation of foreign nationals who complete jail terms,[3] and a curb of refugee numbers.[36]
Economic policy
Le Maire has set out a free-market economic agenda, calling for the privatisation of France's labour offices, the end of subsidised jobs and capping of welfare benefits.[3] Since taking office, he has steered Macron's drive to lighten the government touch on the economy and cut red-tape, and is overseeing a push to privatize airports and other state-controlled companies.[37]
In 2016, however, Le Maire was quoted as saying the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union was a "fabulous opportunity for France" as it would remove the bloc's main champion of deregulation.[38] He vowed on 9 July 2017 to put forward a plan to protect French companies from foreign takeovers.[39]
In August 2017, Le Maire called upon EU nations to step up efforts to address how they tax the digital economy and stated that a "new momentum" was needed to get a fairer contribution from digital platforms, after a report that Airbnb paid less than €100,000 of taxes in France in 2016. He categorised low tax payments as "unacceptable".[41]
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Le Maire and his German counterpart Olaf Scholz were credited as instrumental in overcoming Dutch and Italian resistance and securing the EU's 500 billion euros emergency deal to provide financial aid to workers, companies and governments struggling as a result of the virus.[42]
In July 2020, Le Marie announced that the French government will cut taxes French companies have to pay in addition to normal corporate income tax by 20 million euros over the course of next two years.[43]
Brexit
On Brexit itself, Le Maire caused controversy on 20 July 2017 when he told the French Parliament's economic affairs committee: "The United Kingdom has a remaining balance to pay to the EU budget of €100 billion"[44] The view held by Le Maire has been shared by European Leaders since April 2017 with some of them believing the "divorce-bill" will lead the UK to owing the European Union £50 billion[45] He also promised to set up a special court to handle English-law cases for financial contracts after Brexit during a conference in New York.[46]
Speaking to the BBC in January 2019, Le Maire said the Brexit withdrawal agreement could not be renegotiated and it was up to the UK to find way through the impasse. He also said a no-deal Brexit would be "catastrophic" for the UK.[47]
Foreign policy
On foreign policy, Le Maire is a traditional Gaullist, favouring French national independence.[3] He has argued for a reinforced European defense policy to secure the bloc's exterior borders and fight terrorism, with more spending on the military by Germany in particular.[40]
In February 2019, Le Maire criticized Germany's ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia.[48] Le Maire said: "It is useless to produce weapons through improved cooperation between France and Germany if we are unable to export them."[49] Germany imposed the ban after the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and over human rights concerns about the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen.[50]
On 1 March 2022, Le Maire warned that the EU "will bring about the collapse" of the Russian economy.[51] He said France rejected Russia's demand that foreign buyers must pay in rubles for Russian gas from 1 April, adding that "we are preparing" for a "situation tomorrow in which ... there is no longer any Russian gas."[52]
Controversy
In 2019, Le Maire received several letters containing death threats, including one with bullets enclosed.[53]
In 2021, Reuters reported that Le Maire's phone was investigated to determine whether it had been infected by a spyware known as Pegasus.[54]
In 2023, his novel Fugue Américaine, about the pianist Vladimir Horowitz, was criticized, notably for its inclusion of an explicit sex scene, in the French media. He was accused of spending his time writing while the country was rocked by social tension.[55]
Personal life
Le Maire is married to Pauline Doussau de Bazignan.[56] They have four children. The family has a holiday home in Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle.[53]
Depictions in Film
In the movie La Conquête (The Conquest), released in 2011 about Nicolas Sarkozy's career, he was played by Emmanuel Noblet.
Le Maire briefly appeared in Bertrand Tavernier's film The French Minister (2013) as himself.