Change the story and turn the page on pension reform. President of France, Emmanuel MacronHe has this target between his eyebrows. He wants to unpopularly raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 (43 years contributes to a full pension) to stop it monopolizing public debate in France. For this reason, he has claimed “” by increasing his communication efforts in recent days.reindustrialization” green Neighboring country in one of the European states that has experienced the greatest deindustrialization in the last 40 years, although a balance has been struck with shadow and light shade on this very sensitive issue.
After a visit to the Prologium electric battery factory in Dunkirk (north) last Friday, the centrist leader held the annual Select France summit at the Palace of Versailles on Monday. Some 200 entrepreneurs Foreigners attended this meeting, which aimed to increase the economic attractiveness of the neighboring country, which was going through a period of strong social and political turmoil. The rating agency Fitch downgraded France’s debt rating (from AA to AA-) at the end of April, following mass protests in recent months and the Macronist Executive’s administration, which has been harshly criticized by the influential Anglo-Saxon press.
Interview with Elon Musk
Macron has invited world trade to skim under the glamor of Versailles, as he has done since 2018. met in the morning Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and Space X and Twitter’s largest shareholder. He also had face-to-face plans with the president of the multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer or the steel giant ArcelorMittal. Within the framework of this summit, a total of 28 projects with a value of 13,000 million Euros, which will create approximately 8,000 jobs in the coming years, were announced. Represents the highest number of investments announced in Choose France.
However, this action has a distinct communicative dimension. Most of these projects had been agreed upon in recent months and now announced together to give them more packaging. In fact, Macron places great emphasis on foreign investment to justify his economic supply policies. More than 50,000 million tax breaks According to a study published by the University of Lille at the end of last year, 160,000 million in aid for companies and public subsidies and private groups in 2019.
According to the centrist leader, the “attractiveness” of his country, persistence in reforms Neoliberals, criticized by a significant part of the French public and arousing indignation in the streets. “We’ve made some clear, bold reforms and above all we’re continuing them despite the yellow vest crisis, the war, inflation and protests. There is complete consistency in macroeconomic policies,” Macron said in an interview with liberals this Monday. magazine Opinion.
Balance with chiaroscuro on industrial issues
Despite the executive’s communicative efforts to confirm its conclusions on the “reindustrialization” of France, a green industry law In the Cabinet – his balance in this matter is certainly not exceptional. Filled with chiaroscuro.
France in 2022 – and for the fourth consecutive year – according to a recent study by key cabinet on economic attractiveness. European country attracting the most foreign investment. 40% of these were concentrated in industrial projects. However, these investments have created far fewer jobs than in neighboring countries. According to the same study, each of these foreign projects created an average of 33 new jobs, with 58 in Germany, 59 in the UK and up to 326 in Spain. In total, the number of jobs created by foreign investment in the neighboring country decreased by 15% between 2021 and 2022.
France since 1974 lost up to 2.26 million industrial jobs. The secondary sector represents only 17.5% of France’s total GDP; this is close to 30% in Germany or less than 20% in Spain. Despite the efforts of the Macron government to change this situation by implementing policies similar to those of their predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, this trend is difficult to reverse.
This manufacturing production french right now 0.3% lower Compared to its level in March 2015. According to INSEE data, the weight of the manufacturing industry in GDP fell from 13.74% in the first quarter of 2017 just before Macron came to power to the current 12.74%. By contrast, the number of full-time workers in the industrial sector has increased by nearly 94,000 over the past six years. Few green shoots, but rather small in size. And that they did not make up for more than forty years of deindustrialisation.