Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had his “party gate” which finally broke him, French President Emmanuel Macron could have his “Ubergate”. A plethora of documents – thousands – relayed by the media, including France Info and Le Monde, report on the steps taken by the President of the Republic, at the time Minister of the Economy, to help the tenor VTC Uber to settle in France. And the problem is that Uber is very sulphurous…
Macron, who is still struggling in the results of the legislative elections last June, who lost his majority in Parliament and is running to build alliances with variable geometry, really did not need this ball and chain at the start of his term. Brought to the knowledge of the French yesterday, Sunday evening July 10, this international investigation caused a lot of talk in the French political class, especially the far left which had already claimed the skin of the government of Élisabeth Borne. What to say after these revelations…
Mathilde Panot, president of the group La France insoumise (LFI) in the National Assembly, points to a “looting of the country” and denounces the mixture of genres of Macron, at the same time “advisor and minister of François Hollande and lobbyist for multinational states- unienne aiming to permanently deregulate labor law”, reports BFM TV on Monday…
The leader of the French Communist Party (PCF), Fabien Roussel, underlines “damning revelations on the active role played by Emmanuel Macron, then minister, to facilitate the development of Uber in France”, “against all our rules, all our achievements social and against workers” rights.
For once the far right is making common cause with the far left; Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (RN), is of the opinion that “Emmanuel Macron’s career has a consistency, a red thread: to serve private interests, often foreign, before national interests”.
What could complicate Macron’s situation is the formation of a commission of inquiry at the National Assembly to scrutinize relations between the tenant of the Elysée Palace and the VTC giant. In any case, many deputies want to see this matter through to the end. And given the configuration of the forces in Parliament, the French head of state risks very big. His opponents had been looking for years for something to cut off the wings of the twirling Macron who succeeded in everything – except the last legislative elections -, they may be holding something…
In France, we don’t have the culture of resignation, as in Anglo-Saxon countries, and the case really has to be very serious – indictment or conviction – for politicians to give up their aprons. Macron was already quoted in the McKinsey affair , but things deflated like a balloon, and above all that did not prevent him from being re-elected in April 2022. The Uber file could be much more damaging with a boosted Parliament even before having something to eat…
