Like a country air.
Less than twenty-four hours after the decision of the world tire leader, Bridgestone, to close its Béthune plant (Pas-de-Calais), the president of the National Gathering went, this Thursday morning, on site to discuss with the representatives of some 863 employees, still stunned and uncertain about the future of their jobs.
Taking advantage of the premises of the town hall of Bruay-la-Buissière, a town less than 15 kilometers away from the factory, conquered during the last municipal elections by the young deputy RN Ludovic Pajot, Marine Le Pen was able to exchange an hour and fifteen with a delegation of ten employees.
In the company of the city councilor, the RN deputy of Pas-de-Calais, Bruno Bilde, as well as the RN deputy of the North, very likely head of the regional list in Hauts-de-France, Sébastien Chenu.
“We spoke of the need to act, whether at regional or national level,” he
told
Figaro
.
This situation is absolutely violent.
We have the feeling of reliving
Metaleurop twenty years later
.
"
Organized in the greatest discretion from Wednesday evening, without press or cameras, the trip is reminiscent of another.
The one organized in similar conditions, in the Whirlpool car park in Amiens, in the middle of the 2017 presidential rounds.
To read also: Macron and Le Pen at Whirlpool: a “coup de com '” which makes people react
Like the relocation of the Picardy dryer factory four years ago, the closure of the Pas-de-Calais tire production line - due to the number of jobs at stake - promises to '' be the scene of a political confrontation a few months before the regional elections and less than twenty months from the presidential election.
“There is a triple level of responsibility,”
says Sébastien Chenu.
That of a company, a global beneficiary, which has deliberately devalued its production site for years.
That of a government which has just put 8 billion euros in the automotive sector without any conditions for maintaining employment.
And finally at the regional level where we pretend to discover the situation and shed crocodile tears when there was a lot to do.
Employees are not fooled by anything.
"
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who is due to go there next Monday denounced a
“revolting”
decision
by the world tire leader.
"Bridgestone's decision is scandalous and totally unacceptable
," said the president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, on the spot.
We are dealing with liars, cynics.
"
The secretary general of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, who also made the trip there, assured that
" 3000 to 4000 families who will be impacted.
It's not acceptable.
"
