The fall is expected to be socially gray for the executive. Several large-scale social plans announced at Michelin and Auchan and calls for strikes and mobilization are increasing in several sectors. What options are available to the government to manage these crises?
The executive is entering a very complicated period on a social level. We can expect thousands of job cuts in the industry, according to the minister in charge Marc Ferracci. Once is not customary: he is on the same line as Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, according to whom “we are at the beginning of a violent bleeding” with “more than 150,000 jobs that will disappear, maybe even more.”
For the government, the framework is clear: keep a cool head. A government advisor recognizes this: until now, there have been more jobs created than jobs destroyed, but he fears that, from the start of next year, the balance will fall into the negative. Matignon assures that Michel Barnier is “very attentive“, that it coordinates the government's action, project by project, in connection with the territories.
Elements of language while the Prime Minister has, until now, insisted on saying before the Assembly that he wanted to know what groups like Michelin or Auchan did with the public money that was given to them .
For the moment, he therefore leaves his Minister of Industry, Marc Ferraci, on the front line, as during this very tense trip to the Michelin site in Cholet, where he was exposed to the anger of employees soon to be dismissed. Behind the scenes, we say: yes, there will be dozens of factories that are going to close, several government communicators justify. But, in their eyes, it would be counterproductive for the Prime Minister not to let himself be locked into the register of emotion.
The key question remains what the government can do. “If we had a magic wand, we would use it” slips a ministerial source, at the risk of reinforcing the feeling of powerlessness. And then, there is also, and first of all, the question of what the executive wants.
Nationalize? Certainly not. Switching to an administered economy model, neither. Ban social plans, even less. “We must be wary of ready-made solutions“, retorts a government advisor. However, “Tell the truth to the French“: this is what Michel Barnier promised when he arrived at rue de Varenne. If, for the moment, the Prime Minister remains discreet on the subject, there is still some”very attentive“, assure son cabinet.
However, according to his government, the truth is that keeping companies, whose economic model is at the end of its life, on life support would be harmful. Typical example: the automotive sector, which must move away from the thermal engine.
“We must be wary of ready-made solutions”
a power advisorat franceinfo
The challenge, according to Bercy, is to support transitions and investment in the sectors of the future, but not to save jobs, just to save them.
Concerning the fundamentals in force since Emmanuel Macron came to power, no change: what the State can do is help employees to train, to retrain, to find work… For However, those around the Minister of the Economy refute the thesis of a turnaround in the economic situation, and refuse to speak of a crisis, with a capital “C” and in the singular. There is “crises“and they will add up, that’s all,” we slip.
As for the scope that remains for him, Emmanuel Macron, too, is getting involved as best he can, let his entourage know, who relies on his agency: Wednesday, November 13, the Head of State is expected in front of the Collège de France during a conference to defend the urgency of massive investments at European level, the only way to resist competition from China and the United States.
