Did the sentence spontaneously come to mind, or did Emmanuel Macron already know on Tuesday morning that he would say it in the afternoon? “Ça m’en touche une sans faire bouger l’autre”: This is how the French President reacted to the opposition’s ongoing criticism of his dealings with the transport service provider Uber. The slogan is famous and even adorns T-shirts since Jacques Chirac used it in the 1980s. He has a salacious nonchalance – testicles are involved – that can only be translated in the broadest sense: Macron signals that the allegations go unnoticed.
During his time as economy minister from 2014 to 2016, the liberal had done everything he could to help the US company gain a foothold in France, a country whose policies – not to mention taxi competition – were mostly hostile to Uber. As revealed by the Uber Files, about those in France Le Mondein Germany NDR, WDR and Southgerman newspaper reported, there were hitherto not publicly known meetings between the minister and those responsible for Uber. A common strategy was developed to assert Uber’s interests. The minister may have influenced legislation in favor of Uber at the time.
The left in particular sees all the clichés of the “neoliberal” Macron confirmed in the revelations. “This example shows who Emmanuel Macron’s partners are: the big bosses,” said Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT union. Danielle Simonnet of the leftist La France Insoumise spoke of a “state scandal” in parliament. Apparently the president has a “society of lawless Uber workers” in mind, which is “collective social suicide.”
The President, however, showed neither humility nor a sense of guilt, but launched a counterattack. “I congratulate myself on what I’ve done,” he said. And that he would “do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow”. It was fitting that he appeared approachable – jacketless, sleeves rolled up – as the French had last seen him in April, before the second round of the presidential election, when Macron aggressively bathed in the crowd for a few days. A period of restraint and the loss of a majority in the parliamentary elections followed. For the first time, the head of state was back in the provinces, in Crolles near Grenoble. The location and occasion seemed as if the Élysée had seen the Uber danger coming – to counteract the perfect staging.
Yes, he has spoken to many entrepreneurs – and is proud of it
Because Macron had come to the small high alpine town to “celebrate good news”: the construction of a new semiconductor factory by the US group Global Foundries and the European ST Microelectronics, including investments of 5.7 billion euros, partly from the French Treasury. This is not just in line with France’s “industrial sovereignty,” as Macron has pointed out several times. It also creates 1000 new jobs.
And that’s why Macron thought he could turn the tables on his left-wing critics. “You lost the compass,” he told reporters. “If you believe in social justice and equal opportunities, you have to fight for young people from difficult backgrounds to get a job. That was never their fight. It was mine.” Yes, he spoke to many entrepreneurs. And he’s proud of it.
In fact, Macron saw US companies like Airbnb or Uber, which attacked regulated markets and sometimes broke rules, as the embodiment of the zeitgeist at the time. They fit his creed of progress, his optimism, his belief in achievement and merit – and his will to break up encrustations in France as well.
In this respect, Macron has now returned to his “basic conviction” and his “favorite topic”, writes Le Monde, “as an apostle of a triumphant economy that will sooner or later conquer mass unemployment” and that France is giving back the élan of the Pompidou era in the early 1970s. But that’s only one side, Macron defended in Crolles. As president, he finally made sure that Uber and the platform economy were regulated.