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Supported by Secretary of State LR Laurence Garnier, who invokes savings measures, the announced sale of the magazine created in 1970 outrages its employees, who defend a pillar of public service on which the survival of the National Institute of Consumer Affairs depends .
This could be the end of an idea born in 1966 to give political weight to consumers: creating the National Consumer Institute (INC) to defend them, with an armed arm, the monthly 50 million consumers, launched in 1970. The Barnier government, in search of savings, wanted to get rid of the reference magazine, which had since become 60 million consumers, which could be bought by its competitor What to choose. But with it, the very role of the INC risks disappearing.
Paradoxically, it was Laurence Garnier (LR), Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs, who announced the sales project to INC employees on Friday, November 15, with the objective, she assured, of“optimize the use of public funds”, arguing the “massive loss of subscribers (from 140,000 in 2019 to 76,000 in 2024), and a persistent deficit for seven years. If the idea has come up regularly for ten years, the shock remains «brutal» for employees, explains Emmanuel Chevallier, engineer at INC, who tests the toxicity of products. Especially since a re plan
