The Prime Minister expressed solidarity with the employees of Michelin and Auchan, the two companies having respectively announced factory closures and job cuts.
Questioned this Tuesday in the National Assembly about the closure of the Michelin factories in Vannes and Cholet, Michel Barnier said he regretted this decision announced by the equipment manufacturer in the morning:
“I disagree with this decision. I regret it,” the Prime Minister declared to the deputies. “We are in solidarity” with the employees and “we will be demanding” with the company to “support them individually”, he added, also saying he was in solidarity with Auchan employees while the distributor announced the elimination of nearly 2,400 jobs this Tuesday.
Doze of economy: Where does the Auchan crisis come from? – 05/11
Barnier wants to “know” what was done with the public money given to Michelin and Auchan
Furthermore, if Michel Barnier recognized that Michelin was a “responsible” group, he said he was “concerned to know” what the companies which are closing factories and cutting jobs have “done with the public money that we gave them.”
“I want to know. And so we are going to ask questions and we will see if this money was used well or badly to learn lessons,” he explained.
The Prime Minister hoped that these groups could “work with the local fabric, local elected officials (…) unions, local employers, chambers of commerce” to “put (…) together all the tools we have we have to support each employee individually and support these territories in the possibility of reconversion”.
“We must create or recreate industrial employment, as well as maintaining agricultural employment in our country”, affirmed the head of government, referring to the creation at the beginning of 2025 of an “industrial savings book”, as well as “European responses” with “less naivety” in the face of “not always fair” foreign competition.
