(Bloomberg) — On a rainy Sunday afternoon in September, France’s freshly appointed finance minister, Antoine Armand, received a curious welcome gift from his predecessor.
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Bruno Le Maire presented 33-year-old Armand, the youngest finance chief in France’s post-war history, with a traditional Basque walking cane. A person’s worth clearly no longer depends on their age, the former minister remarked, but the stick might still come in handy as an aid for climbing mountains and for defending against enemies.
As the inheritor of a massive public deficit who is tasked with crafting unpopular budget cuts to meet EU demands — and with no parliamentary majority to back him — the incoming finance minister will need all the support and weaponry he can get.
“This will help you deal with the many perils on your path,” Le Maire said.
In picking Armand, President Emmanuel Macron has taken a risky bet on youth over experience to face the triple threat of keeping the French economy from falling deeper in the hole, of shoring up France’s weakening influence in the EU, and of salvaging his own legacy as a liberal disruptor who opened up France to business.
Armand will need to tackle sudden gaping holes in public finances that have panicked investors around the world and fueled a costly sell-off in French sovereign bonds. The turbulence has brought humbling relegation for France within the European order, leaving the country with borrowing costs closer to Italy’s than those of safe-haven Germany.
If the challenges posed by the nation’s finances alone weren’t enough, Armand will need to maneuver his way through a volatile political situation as the split of the National Assembly into three feuding blocs hands the far right an unprecedented grip on power. Parliamentary math means far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s lawmakers get to decide how long Armand remains in office as their votes will determine the success or failure of potential no-confidence motions.
Armand wasn’t the president’s or Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s first choice for the job. He only got the call a few days before being officially named and after more senior figures with extensive experience had turned down the post, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Macron loyalist, who has little political clout, doesn’t play down the scale of the job and hopes to maintain the liberal economic line his boss has long championed.