2024-04-11 15:28:05
The upheaval caused by the war in Ukraine and global rearmament require a “sustainable” effort by the defense industry to produce more and more quickly, Emmanuel Macron warned this Thursday as he laid the first stone of a shell powder factory. in Bergerac (Dordogne).
“We have left for the long term to settle into a geopolitical, geostrategic change where defense industries will have an increasing role,” said the Head of State in the presence of defense industrialists, whom he urged to accelerate to move to a “war economy” in order to continue to actively support kyiv against Russia. “We cannot let go of Ukraine,” he recalled.
“No industrial fatality”
According to him, the “effort” to be made is “urgent, we have to go fast, strong, massive, but it is also sustainable”. “The world we are talking about will not stop if tomorrow the war ends, because there is a massive rearmament (…) of Russia and because you see everywhere in Europe military spending, orders increasing “, he insisted.
The first stone laid by the Head of State on the Eurenco site, the European leader in powders and explosives, should result in the opening in early 2025 of a new powder factory essential for propelling shells, capable of to produce 1,200 tonnes of powder per year.
No tax increase
Later, the president indicated “close the hypothesis” of an increase in taxes, defending his economic strategy which “produces results”, despite a deficit larger than expected. “We must respond to this economic shock,” he said. The line is simple and has been reaffirmed: we stay the course (full employment, reindustrialization, rearmament of our public services) and we immediately close the hypothesis of saying that we are going to resolve this economic shock with more taxes, French disease. It would take away confidence. We maintain the trust of households, businesses and our partners. »
France indicated on Wednesday that it now anticipates a public deficit of 5.1% of GDP for 2024, which will require finding another 10 billion euros this year, for a return to 2.9% of GDP in 2027. In front of Bruno Le Mayor, with whom he denied having any “disagreement”, Emmanuel Macron insisted that his economic strategy was not “bad”, but that on the contrary it produced “results”.
“We are the most attractive in Europe, we have some of the best growth in the euro zone, we create jobs and we are getting closer to others. (…) And so all that is good, we must keep it,” he insisted again.
Angry farmers to welcome the president
On the occasion of the president’s visit to the Eurenco site, farmers from Rural Coordination gathered in tractors, supervised by the police. The delegation was to be received “by the chief of staff of the President of the Republic,” the organization said.
#bergerac The Rural Coordination brought out the tractors as a sign of agricultural anger, which is still strong. Dordogne Rural Coordination #cr24 will be received by the chief of staff of the President of the Republic while the latter visits the Eurenco factory in Bergerac… pic.twitter.com/PQMo5UAb5h
— Coordination Rurale (@coordinationrur) April 11, 2024
The Bergerac site, which had been producing since 1915, was dismantled in 2007 due to lack of sufficient orders. Demand had started to increase before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine but the conflict was a “growth accelerator” for the group, according to its CEO Thierry Francou. Eurenco’s orders now extend until 2030 and represented 1.2 billion euros over the last six months. For Emmanuel Macron, “the relocation of powders, which had in fact been abandoned, shows that there is no industrial inevitability”.
“Numbness”
Production of 250 kg bomb bodies has also been relocated to France, according to the Élysée. “We have entered production for two export contracts covering a few hundred bombs,” Aresia CEO Bruno Berthet explained to AFP. If the creation of this new chain was self-financing, the company benefited from the support of the Ministry of the Armed Forces to accelerate the qualification of these bomb corps, which it was not billed for, according to him.
Accompanied in Bergerac by Ministers of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and Ministers of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, the Head of State was then due to meet leaders of the French arms industry on the subject of rearmament. Among them, the bosses of MBDA Éric Béranger, of Thales Patrice Caine, of KNDS France (ex-Nexter) Nicolas Chamussy, and of Bruno Durand, president of Aubert et Duval, manufacturer of special steels used both for sailors, as for planes or Caesar cannons.
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