In France, a violent industrial bloodletting is looming. The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, is concerned about a large number of job cuts. “French industry is going through a very bad time,” said former minister Arnaud Montebourg, guest of Thomas Sotto on RTL on November 12th.
The new American president, Donald Trump, plans major measures of protectionism, by increasing customs duties, for example. For Europe, a similar policy is “inevitable”, according to the former minister. “We cannot be the outlet for the global confrontation between China and America, he assures. And so, this is one of the reasons why Europe will have to, after the election of Donald Trump, enter into a situation of quasi-military protection of our markets, our borders.”
“We are going to have to defend ourselves, because otherwise we are going to end up very badly,” he believes. In his recent report, Mario Draghi says that we have 30% less growth compared to the United States, I'm not even talking to you about China…”
According to Arnaud Montebourg, “we are in the process of stalling on the global level, on the technological level, on the investment level, on the general economic level”. “You have,” he explains, “two economic empires which are in the process of investing and which are in a debt race, while we are in the process of reducing all budgets, destroying economic capacities, production and innovation capacities.
Read more
France
