Until the first round of the presidential election, L’argus details the proposals of the main candidates concerning the automotive sector. Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) unsurprisingly wants to electrify cars as quickly as possible and facilitate the transfer of threatened jobs.
On Monday March 14, the Mobilians, PFA, Fiev and CSIAM teams welcomed the candidates (or rather their respective representatives) to the Salle Gaveau in Paris. La France Insoumise was the last guest on stage, represented by Eric Coquerel. Social and economic measures have obviously been put forward, but the left-wing party does not forget industry. Here’s what to remember.
TO READ. Presidential 2022. What are the candidates’ cars?
The “double penalty” for motorists
No need to have invented gunpowder to know the general vision of rebellious France. It wants to develop carpooling, car sharing and public transport. The “zero emission” objective is a priority for the automotive industry. Eric Coquerel acknowledges, however, that the “credible alternatives to the car are not optimized and that popular ecology is not about punishing people who drive in individual vehicles”. He even speaks ofdouble jeopardy”: low-income people cannot afford to change their thermal car for an electric one, while purchasing power drops and fuel costs increase.
To counter these injustices, Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants “strengthen the conversion bonus” and encourage retrofitting, a technology that is too expensive today because it is used in a “punctual” according to him. Like other more “extremist” candidates, he also explains that EPZs, at least “in their current state”, would also be questioned and doomed to disappear.
Stop outsourcing French industry
In order not to harm professionals in the sector, the Mélenchon program wishes to relocate the French automobile industry to our soil and avoid subcontracting at all times. Eric Coquerel of course addressed the supply problems linked to the Ukrainian crisis and that of semiconductors. The fact of “facilitate the transfer of employment to battery recycling, digital” or any other conversionwill therefore be accompanied by the party if elected.
La France insoumise wishes to facilitate the transfer of traditional jobs to battery recycling, digital…
The big industrial difference with the right concerns the lowering of production taxes. A proposal “unthinkable” for Eric Coquerel, who does not want to profit excessively from companies. He explains that he wants “create an ecological planning commission” to ensure the sustainable development of competitiveness clusters through “aid subject to certain criteria”. But without precise figures, it is difficult to form an opinion.
Fuel prices stuck at €1.40
This is one of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s flagship measures. The candidate wants to freeze fuel prices as was the case in 1990. And at €1.40, no other candidate has the cheek to want to break the current market so much. MP Alexis Corbière (LFI spokesperson) spoke about the major oil groups. “It is out of the question that we are in a period of over-profit on energy groups and that it is only through public aid that we try to compensate for that. So we should actually go after the big oil groups“, he had defended.
The other candidates:
- Emmanuel Macron
- Marine Le Pen
