Audrey Pulvar, at her Parisian campaign HQ for the regionals in Ile-de-France, May 25, 2021. – JEANNE ACCORSINI / SIPA
Two weeks before the first round of the regional elections, the candidates continue to string out their proposals. Audrey Pulvar, PS candidate in Ile-de-France, announces that she wants to create if she is elected a public investment bank for “ecological conversion and local employment”.
This regional public bank would have an envelope of one billion euros over the term of office, “half financed by the Region, half by the sponsorship of large companies”, exposes the former journalist in the JDD. It also wants to create “a regional Livret A with guaranteed remuneration to mobilize the savings of Ile-de-France residents and direct them towards useful investments”.
SMEs at the heart of candidates’ proposals
Through zero-interest loans, this bank will have to “support artisans, very small businesses and SMEs”, in priority those “who engage in an eco-responsible, social and local production approach”, but also “to support companies from time to time. in difficulty ”or“ enter the capital of companies when they are threatened by foreign capital ”. This proposal especially echoes that of his opponents: Laurent Saint-Martin (LREM) proposes a popular savings fund to support SMEs through their capital, and the outgoing president Valérie Pécresse (Libres !, ex-LR) wants create an investment fund to bring the region into the capital of 150 VSEs and SMEs in the sectors most affected by the crisis.
To attract voters on June 20 and 27, Audrey Pulvar wants business loans to be made in a local currency “on the model of that created by the Swiss bank WIR during the economic crisis of the 1930s”, and create a regional planning commission responsible for “directing public investments towards strategic sectors, such as green hydrogen or organic photovoltaics”. It also maintains its flagship proposal for progressive free public transport, “largely fundable” with a full cost of 2.5 billion euros per year when all Ile-de-France residents will be able to benefit from it “by 2026”.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Wednesday, Valérie Pécresse came out largely in the lead in voting intentions (35%) in the 1st round, ahead of the RN candidate Jordan Bardella (16%), Laurent Saint-Martin (15%), Audrey Pulvar ( 12%), the EELV candidate Julien Bayou (10%) and the LFI-PCF candidate Clémentine Autain (9%). In the second round, Valérie Pécresse would win in all cases of quadrangular, regardless of the opponent of union from the left, according to the same poll.