The Socialist Party announced on Tuesday that it would vote against the appointment of Emmanuel Moulin as head of the Bank of France, thus joining La France insoumise and the National Rally in their opposition to Emmanuel Macron’s candidate. It was PS deputy Philippe Brun, vice-president of the finance committee, who made this decision public on the eve of the former Élysée secretary general’s hearings before the finance committees of the Senate and then the National Assembly.
To justify this refusal, Philippe Brun cites a prohibitive lack of independence: as the main person responsible for the executive’s economic policy for ten years, Moulin could not, in his view, claim any distance from the current government. The Socialist deputy also reproaches him for having worked in favor of banking deregulation during preparatory hearings and for having played a central role in defending the banking lobby.
The fate of the appointment now in the hands of the Republicans
The vote will be held by secret ballot after Wednesday’s hearings. If three-fifths of the votes cast are unfavorable, the appointment will be postponed. With LFI and the RN having already announced their opposition, Emmanuel Moulin’s fate now depends on the position of the Republicans.
Moulin’s candidacy, a longtime close collaborator of Macron, is generating cross-party opposition around the same argument: the future governor would serve for several years after the end of the presidential term in 2027, which makes the question of his independence from the executive that appointed him all the more sensitive. Moulin began to move in power circles as early as 2007, under Nicolas Sarkozy, before becoming a central figure during the Macron years.
