The economic stakes, in particular industrial, are always the great absentees of the presidential campaign – all the more reason to talk about it, assures France Industrie. The organization representing 29 sectors with the public authorities presented, Thursday, February 3, a series of proposals. Submitted to the candidates, they are intended to improve the competitiveness and the attractiveness of a sector which now weighs only 13.4% of the national wealth, two times less than in Germany.
“How to make reindustrialization a common objective of our public policies? », asks Alexandre Saubot, president of France Industrie. If the decline has been halted since 2017, France is far from the mark when compared to Germany, but also to Italy and Spain. Gold “the ecological and technological transition offers it a real opportunity to recover, because it has assets, such as training, scientific culture, research centers and a technological heritage”he assures.
The first response, according to the lobby, involves a reduction of 35 billion euros in production taxes for “creating a supply shock” in order to return to the European average. With the priority given to the abolition of the most penalizing taxes for industry (CVAE, C3S and CFE). A considerable effort, which would be added to the 20 billion euros in reductions already granted by the government over 2020-2021. Without commenting on the financing of financial compensation, in particular for local authorities, Mr. Saubot believes that the volume of work must be increased, by extending its duration and by creating new jobs.
Torn between two departments
In addition, France Industrie proposes the creation of a “great ministry” of full-fledged industry which would also integrate energy and technological research, and even transport. “No major country in Europe has separated energy and industrysaid Mr. Saubot, also CEO of the Haulotte group. However, there is a very strong link between industrial reconquest, energy needs and decarbonization”especially at a time when electrification is intensifying to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by France and Europe.
In France, energy has been separated if not torn between two ministries for twenty years. The objectives of the Ministries of Economy and Ecological Transition are not “not necessarily aligned”, notes Patrice Caine, vice-president of France Industrie and CEO of the electronics and defense group Thales. A Gaullian dream? The State must equip itself with a powerful and technophile administration so that industrialists have “competent interlocutors”.
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