The Stellantis automobile group (brands Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Chrysler, Opel, Lancia, Jeep, etc.) announced the resignation on Sunday “with immediate effect” of Mr. Tavares, whose successor will be named in the first half of 2025. The board of directors had already suspended Mr. Tavares, 66, by announcing his retirement at the beginning of October and launched a succession process, but disagreements accelerated his resignation. The planets were no longer aligned, with “different points of view” between the board of directors and Mr. Tavares, explained Henri de Castries, director of Stellantis.
John Elkann, chairman of the board of directors of Stellantis and heir to the group's main shareholder, the Italian Agnelli family, had notably ruled out any merger with another automobile group, in an interview with AFP in October, while Mr. Tavares left the door open.
Factory closures at Stellantis in Europe? “Nothing should be excluded”
Coming from Renault, Mr. Tavares made a name for himself by turning around the PSA group (Peugeot-Citroën) from 2014, by reducing costs. He then led the megamerger between PSA and FCA (Fiat-Chrysler). Since the creation of this group of fourteen brands in 2021, Stellantis has set net profit records. The group also quickly turned to hybrid and electric cars.
But Stellantis coughed in the first half of 2024, with net profit halved, before seeing its margins collapse in the face of more serious difficulties than expected in North America – its cash machine – with vehicles of criticized quality and prices considered too high. Mr. Tavares had to abandon his sacred “double-digit” operating margin objective for the year at the end of September, which placed him far ahead of his competitors.
The process of appointing the new general director of the group is already “on track” et “will be completed during the first half of 2025”, the group pointed out. In a context of difficulties for the automobile sector, Renault's action lost 3.97% around 08:45 GMT in Paris and that of Volkswagen, whose employees launched a strike on Monday, fell by 1.49% in Frankfurt.
Risk of censorship
Investors are “waiting to know if the French government will be censored and overthrown in the National Assembly”summarizes John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud. The French lower house examines on Monday from 3:00 p.m. the PLFSS (bill on the financing of Social Security), resulting from a compromise between a committee of senators and deputies. As it stands, however, it should not be voted on by either the left or the far right, in a divided Assembly.
After having obtained the abandonment of the increase in taxes on electricity and a reduction in state medical aid (AME) for undocumented immigrants, the RN is in fact demanding new concessions, on the revaluation of pensions of retirement or a step backwards on the reduction in reimbursement for certain medications. However, the Minister of Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin finally declared this weekend his support for the text as validated by the joint committee which brought together around fifteen senators and deputies.
Without a majority, Prime Minister Michel Barnier could therefore activate article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the approval of a text without a vote. He would then be exposed to a motion of censure which could be examined as early as Wednesday. “Yes, it’s over (…) I am forced today to announce government censorship”declared Monday Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, the first group in the Assembly.
The National Rally will vote on a motion of censure with the left to bring down the government, “except obviously, a last minute miracle, if Michel Barnier were to review his copy by 3:00 p.m. But I have little hope that he will be touched by grace”said Mr. Bardella. Government censorship, if it materializes, would be a first since the fall of Georges Pompidou's government in 1962.”This new episode in French political life could well be the last before the rating agencies sanction the country. estimate John Plassard.
