"Dear readers, forgive me for bothering you for a turtleneck."
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire split a long text published this Saturday morning on his Facebook page, in which he reacted after the controversy around the wearing of a turtleneck instead of a tie, in the framework of the energy sobriety plan.
It all starts on France Inter on September 27.
Bruno Le Maire specifies that he will swap the tie for a turtleneck this winter, in line with the efforts and the reduction in heating recommended by the government's energy sobriety plan.
There follows, a few hours later, a tweet in which appears a simple photo of the minister with a turtleneck.
pic.twitter.com/UEZa5CEivA
– Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) September 27, 2022
It was enough for the turtleneck to be at the heart of a controversy accusing it of pouring into communication, while the deputy for Paris Gilles Le Gendre claimed at the same time that he no longer used his dryer, replaced by a clothes horse.
“I never recommended wearing a turtleneck”
The minister thus reacted this Saturday morning by deploring that the substance of his remarks had been abandoned in favor of form, and denies any desire for infantilization: “The turtleneck protects in winter.
You don't need a minister to know that.
You need his clothing recommendations even less.
(…) At the risk of surprising you after a week where the opposite has been said, I have never recommended anyone to wear a turtleneck,” he explains.
Read alsoEnergy sobriety: turtleneck, down jacket… Can government communication be effective?
If the humor and the resulting jokes about him do not seem to disturb him, Bruno Le Maire denounces the fact that his words have been "distorted, transformed, twisted for the sole pleasure of buzz and noise".
A “shrill sneer” with each “speech”
The tenant of Bercy deplored that his speeches on his area of expertise are no longer audible because of the repeated controversies: “Would you like the Minister of Finance to talk about debt, taxes, competitiveness of our companies, employment?
Me too.
(…) But you will not hear me, (…) because my speech will be covered by the noise”, he criticized.
“Who would not be discouraged by such futility?
Who would not turn away from public life - political, militant or associative - by listening to the chorus of sarcasm, the strident sneer that accompanies the slightest speech from the most modest of its leaders?
he questioned, stressing that “if we let the digital world broadcast inaccurate words, transform words, distort images, without (…) we react with a critical reflex, the digital world will colonize our minds” .
“In a sweater, a tie, a bathing suit or a suit, it doesn't matter: I won't give up on my ideas.
(…) We are a people;
let’s not become a pack,” he concluded.
