“How much did it cost you ?”: a stinging question, Apolline de Malherbe goes straight to the point with her guest

This Friday, January 17, Apolline de Malherbe received Eric Lombard, Minister of the Economy, on BFMTV. And she did not hesitate to ask him a spicy question.

© BFMTV Apolline de Malherbe received Eric Lombard, Minister of the Economy, on BFMTV. And she didn't hesitate to ask him a spicy question.

IN BRIEF

• On January 17, 2025, Apolline de Malherbe interviewed Eric Lombard, Minister of the Economy, on BFMTV about the budget and government proposals.
• Eric Lombard discussed the reindexation of the tax scale to avoid a tax increase for 18 million people.
• But Apolline de Malherbe asked a stinging question to the politician.

This Friday, January 17, 2025, Apolline de Malherbe was at the helm of Face à Face on BFMTV. She received Eric Lombard, Minister of the Economy, who came to talk about the budget and the government's various proposals.

The politician then returned to the possible increase in taxes: “We are not going to touch households and on the contrary, thanks to the decision of the Socialist Party, we will be able to reindex the scale. Otherwise, 18 million people would see their taxes increase. The number of French taxable will not change, because taxes will take into account inflation”, he said. 

Apolline de Malherbe asks Eric a stinging question Lombard

But here is the journalist asking him a stinging question: “But deep down I would like to know, çdid it cost you how much to buy the non-censorship of the Socialist Party ? Have you done the accounts ?”, she asks him.

The Minister of the Economy dodges the issue and reminds us: “I would like to say that what cost a lot, is the censorship.Because censorship has resulted in two things: first, a drop in growth (…) uncertainty generates a halt in investments, recruitment,”, he specifies. 

Costly censorship

This initial observation has been evaluated of “around six billion euros”. Apolline de Malherbe then bounces back on this figure: “Ça means that we lost 1.5 points of growth, just between Christmas and New Year's Day”. Eric Lombard qualifies: “Probably 0.3 of growth. So it's very costly. And then, 6 billion euros of lost revenue that couldn't be taken. So the first source of difficulty is censorship, he insists on specifying.

“The fact that the Socialist Party didn't vote censorship, on the contrary, will allow the economy to be revived faster and it is therefore an agreement that is not costly but that will generate activity, that will generate revenue”. A sentence that makes the journalist tick: “Which is not costly… When we look at the facts, in the last 24 hours, you have given up a certain number of revenues,” she said. Among them: the non-reimbursement of medicines, the promise of an increase in the hospital budget, no more cutting of teaching positions…