Emmanuel Macron sharply replied on Tuesday July 12 to criticism of his privileged exchanges in the past with the multinational Uber, revealed by The Guardianand transmitted to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the ICIJ, and to forty-two media partners, including The world.
“I am extremely proud (…), it is very difficult to create jobs without companies or entrepreneurs”assumed the Head of State. “I would do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow”he insisted after a visit to the site of the company STMicroelectronics, near Grenoble.
As part of the “Uber Files”, an investigation based on thousands of internal Uber documents, The world concluded that there is a « deal » secret between Uber and Emmanuel Macron when he was in Bercy, between 2014 and 2016.
The oppositions continued on Tuesday to accuse the head of state of having defended the interests of Uber at the time when the company was developing its presence in France, when he himself was François’s economy minister. Holland.
The formations constituting the left alliance Nupes will ask for a parliamentary commission of inquiry, thus confirmed the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure.
“Here is a minister who (…) has secretly, secretly, built a deal with the company that everyone knows was that of the lowest social bidder, which was the Trojan horse of the destruction of part of our labor code »he criticized on LCI.
“I fully accept it, looking at you! »
The National Rally (RN) wants to launch an information mission, announced its president, Jordan Bardella, according to whom Mr. Macron was at Bercy “the entry point for private interests in France”.
“We introduce a kind of atmosphere which would consist in saying that seeing business leaders, in particular foreign ones, would be bad. But I fully accept it, and looking at you! »replied Mr. Macron. “I saw business leaders, the horror! I saw them, it was always official, with collaborators. I’m proud of it ! If they have created jobs in France, I’m super proud of that. »
“As one of my predecessors would say, it affects me one without moving the other”insisted the Head of State, in reference to a sentence attributed to Jacques Chirac.
“I brought in companies, I helped French entrepreneurs, I especially helped young people, who were not offered jobs, who came from difficult neighborhoods, who had no opportunities job, to find one for the first time in their life, and for thousands of them »President Macron pleaded on Tuesday.
« Ensuite »he continued in front of some journalists, “We have regulated these jobs, by closing, by locking at French and European level. (…) When I became president, we regulated the sector without any complacency. We are the first country to regulate the platforms and then we pushed it to the European level”.
“It’s not Chirac who wants”, ironically Boris Vallaud
The VTC system, which made the fortune of Uber and other players who appeared in the 2010s, had aroused the revolt of taxis at the time. “We helped taxis as much as possible during the crisis”assured Mr. Macron on Tuesday. “I have always respected this profession, but we had a system that was administratively closed. We did not give enough licenses. »
““Hyperproud” of trampling on labor law, encouraging deregulation and supporting a firm that is a champion of tax evasion: the president persists and signs”tweeted the communist Fabien Roussel after the presidential remarks.
“It’s not Chirac who wants… good words are not always enough to hide bad manners”reacted Boris Vallaud, leader of the PS deputies.
“Uber Files”, an international investigation
“Uber Files” is an investigation based on thousands of internal Uber documents sent by an anonymous source to the British daily The Guardianand forwarded to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 media partners, including The world.
Emails, presentations, meeting minutes… These 124,000 documents, dated from 2013 to 2017, offer a rare dive into the mysteries of a start-up which was then seeking to establish itself in cities around the world despite a regulatory context. unfavorable. They detail how Uber has used, in France as elsewhere, all the tricks of lobbying to try to change the law to its advantage.
The “Uber Files” also reveal how the Californian group, determined to impose itself by a fait accompli and, if necessary, by operating illegally, has implemented practices that voluntarily play with the limits of the law, or that may amount to judicial obstruction of the investigations of which he was the subject.
Find all our articles from the “Uber Files” survey