The former minister is to join the board of directors of the start-up Hopium, which specializes in hydrogen vehicles. The tempo of the announcement caused controversy on Monday.
The announcement seemed a little hasty on Monday. The French start-up Hopium, specializing in hydrogen-powered cars, announced in the morning the appointment of the Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, to its board of directors, even before the ministerial reshuffle took place. has taken place. And therefore that Jean-Baptiste Djebbari has officially left the government.
Read alsoJean-Baptiste Djebbari will join the board of directors of the start-up Hopium
Criticized by part of the opposition and associated with “slipper», this departure in the private sector is assumed by the person concerned. Questioned this Tuesday morning on RMC, the former Minister of Transport affirmed to be “not at all uncomfortable» with his hiring by the start-up Hopium. “I came from private. I was part of this generation that joined Emmanuel Macron in 2017. We can return to the private sector, respecting certain rules“, he defended.
Endorsement of the HATVP
Regarding the tempo of the announcement, the former pilot defends his future employer by indicating that Hopium had to respect, “in accordance with the commercial code“, a period of 35 days between the proposal of his name and the holding of the board of directors of the company. On the other hand, he seized the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) in January in order to have the validity of this professional retraining examined. The latter considered in its opinion issued on March 22 that “the risk of illegal taking of interests can be ruled out, subject to the sovereign assessment of the criminal judge“, while expressing several reservations, in particular with regard to potential approaches to representation of interests.
The former minister also reacted to a tweet from the deputy Insoumis François Ruffin, who estimated this Tuesday morning that “Djebbari who slippers at the French leader of the hydrogen vehicle, it is really a non-information. Since 2020 he has devoted one week per month of his time as minister and €49,000 to the preparation of a Master’s degree. The career before the daily problems of the French!»
The person concerned confirmed that he had undergone training, at a rate “one day per month», and devoted to the challenges of digital and environmental transformation. “It is now recommended by Jean-Marc Jancovici“, engineer and lecturer specializing in environmental policies, argued the former minister. More specifically, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari followed an Executive Master at the Ecole Polytechnique, training to which he applied when he was a deputy, but which he followed while he was in office at the ministry.
Read alsoModernization of the railway: Djebbari evokes “the continuation”, more ambitious
If he leaves the ministry, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari will not abandon his TikTok account, which made him known to teenagers thanks to his schoolboy jokes, and which now has 1.2 million subscribers. “I will continue to make quality TikTok, as they say in the jargon“, he specified.
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