French union dubs Hollande govt’s threat to take over Mittal plant ‘blackmail’
30 Nov 2012 7:49 AM IST
The head of France's largest employers' union on Thursday slammed as 'blackmail' a threat by the state to take over the Florange plant in the eastern Lorraine region, owned by India-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. President Francois Hollande has himself dangled the threat in talks with the billionaire, ranked 21 in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people, over the row on the plant.
France has threatened to take over the plant if ArcelorMittal goes ahead with plans to permanently close two blast furnaces on the site that the company regards as uneconomic. ArcelorMittal, which wants to continue to operate the rest of the site, has given the government until Saturday to find a new investor willing to take over the furnaces.
Laurence Parisot, the head of the influential Medef employers' union, said that the proposed move, first unveiled by Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg, was 'simply scandalous'. 'If the aim through these statements is simply to exercise pressure, to engage in blackmail in the course of negotiations, it is unacceptable,' she said on RTL radio. Parisot said that it was not up to the state “to start telling each company in France 'this is our strategy',” adding that only 'an entrepreneur can know if something is profitable or not'.
Former premier Alain Juppe, a heavyweight in the right-wing opposition, called for Montebourg to be sacked over remarks he deemed 'calamitous' for the image of France. 'It is time to replace someone who is on his way to becoming the minister for industrial collapse,' Juppe wrote in his blog.
Hollande had dangled the threat of nationalisation just minutes before his one-to-one talks with Mittal on Tuesday, which the government spokeswoman said had been 'frank and firm'. ArcelorMittal argues that the Florange blast furnaces are uncompetitive in current market conditions, partly because they are too far from ports for transportation. The company has warned that nationalisation of the plant would cast doubts on the future of all its operations in France, where it employs 20,000 people. The French government, on its part, wants the company to guarantee the estimated 650 jobs on the line.
Montebourg caused controversy earlier in the week when he said that Mittal was 'not welcome in France', comments that were quickly disowned by his colleagues and from which he subsequently backtracked. But the minister, widely regarded as a loose cannon whose mantra to promote 'Made in France' has even seen him pose in a Breton sailor top for a popular magazine, said on Wednesday that an investor in the business is interested in buying Florange.
'We have a buyer who is a steel man, an industrialist, who is not a financier, who wants to invest his own money and who is ready to put almost 400 million euros into renovating this plant,' Montebourg told deputies.
A group of socialist members of parliament has objected that Mittal does not have French interests at heart. The government's stance is being closely watched by investors and London mayor Boris Johnson seized upon the row to invite fleeing businessmen to the British capital.
France has threatened to take over the plant if ArcelorMittal goes ahead with plans to permanently close two blast furnaces on the site that the company regards as uneconomic. ArcelorMittal, which wants to continue to operate the rest of the site, has given the government until Saturday to find a new investor willing to take over the furnaces.
Laurence Parisot, the head of the influential Medef employers' union, said that the proposed move, first unveiled by Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg, was 'simply scandalous'. 'If the aim through these statements is simply to exercise pressure, to engage in blackmail in the course of negotiations, it is unacceptable,' she said on RTL radio. Parisot said that it was not up to the state “to start telling each company in France 'this is our strategy',” adding that only 'an entrepreneur can know if something is profitable or not'.
Former premier Alain Juppe, a heavyweight in the right-wing opposition, called for Montebourg to be sacked over remarks he deemed 'calamitous' for the image of France. 'It is time to replace someone who is on his way to becoming the minister for industrial collapse,' Juppe wrote in his blog.
Hollande had dangled the threat of nationalisation just minutes before his one-to-one talks with Mittal on Tuesday, which the government spokeswoman said had been 'frank and firm'. ArcelorMittal argues that the Florange blast furnaces are uncompetitive in current market conditions, partly because they are too far from ports for transportation. The company has warned that nationalisation of the plant would cast doubts on the future of all its operations in France, where it employs 20,000 people. The French government, on its part, wants the company to guarantee the estimated 650 jobs on the line.
Montebourg caused controversy earlier in the week when he said that Mittal was 'not welcome in France', comments that were quickly disowned by his colleagues and from which he subsequently backtracked. But the minister, widely regarded as a loose cannon whose mantra to promote 'Made in France' has even seen him pose in a Breton sailor top for a popular magazine, said on Wednesday that an investor in the business is interested in buying Florange.
'We have a buyer who is a steel man, an industrialist, who is not a financier, who wants to invest his own money and who is ready to put almost 400 million euros into renovating this plant,' Montebourg told deputies.
A group of socialist members of parliament has objected that Mittal does not have French interests at heart. The government's stance is being closely watched by investors and London mayor Boris Johnson seized upon the row to invite fleeing businessmen to the British capital.
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