On Monday, October 5, Emmanuel Moulin sat down with the Financial Times.
He had taken over the Banque de France in June. His message was blunt. If France fails to repair its public finances, he warned, it risks being "strangled by interest rates."
He never named Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
He didn't need to.
The next day, Mélenchon, the presidential candidate of La France Insoumise, went on X. He accused the governor, "a former direct aide to Macron," of publicly taking sides against his own country abroad by implicitly calling on speculators to punish France for Mélenchon's proposals.
Then came the line that made the news. "It is an act of treason. There will be no statute of limitations in 2027. He will be prosecuted for this."
A presidential candidate in the eurozone's second-largest economy has promised to prosecute a central banker over an interview about borrowing costs.
France is only the first stop.
A Fight Over Debt