Ihere is a paradox concerning the state as shareholder. In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, it mobilized quickly and efficiently, with exceptional resources, to come to the aid of companies in difficulty (Air France and SNCF, in particular), but this successful mobilization did not can make us forget his mistakes, for decades, with regard to our public jewels.
A country which loses its industrial know-how in nuclear power, which does not modernize its railways to the detriment of the safety of its travellers, which supports its airline company at arm’s length without obvious results, is a country in decline. Why have we come to this?
First responsibility, that of the “Headhunting State”, which, for too long, has appointed quite respectable leaders, for Air France or EDF for example, but who were not cut out for the function. With regard to our airline, why did it take so long to appoint an aviation specialist, Ben Smith, as its head?
Second responsibility, that of the “State contradictory injunctions”, which tosses its public companies according to short-term political agendas: 2017, stoppage of all-TGV; 2021, relaunch of TGVs; 2017, [Emmanuel Macron a déclaré :] “It’s not good to have 75% of our electrical energy dependent on nuclear”2021, “It’s a historic opportunity”.
exhausted horse
Third responsibility, that of the “Painful injunctions State”, which imposes public service investments (Orange), business takeovers (EDF) or even loss of revenue (EDF), without allowing us to move forward through strategic operations (Orange-Bouygues and Renault-Fiat Chrysler Automobiles). For years, EDF had to go into debt to serve a dividend intended to make the ends of the month of the State shareholder instead of investing in its industrial tool. As for the revival of nuclear power, the company is so weakened that it is as if one asked a weary horse to run the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Fourth responsibility, that of the leaders of public companies who have not been determined enough to twist the arm of the state shareholder when it showed procrastination. “Shut your mouth” or, if it wants to open it, “resign”? For a Christian Blanc, who left in 1997, failing to obtain the privatization of Air France, how many others have lacked courage?
Edgar Morin warns us: “When the immediate devours, the spirit drifts” ; the same goes for state interventionism: when the shareholder government devours the short term, eats dividends, crunches CEOs…, it is the shareholder state that drifts, because it is it that fails in its mission to strategic state.
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