In double campaign.
President (DVD, ex-LR) of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand is first of all a candidate for re-election, which is not won.
But he is also an increasingly essential figure - and, as he assures the Parisian - Today in France, "determined" - to represent the right during the presidential election of 2022.
In the Bridgestone case, which wants to close its Béthune tire factory in Pas-de-Calais, where 863 employees work, are you, like the State, doomed to impotence?
XAVIER BERTRAND.
Certainly not.
You can't force them to invest, but you can tell them: we'll be by your side if you do.
If Bridgestone has an investment plan of 200 million euros, the State and the region can finance a large part of it with the recovery plan.
It will be much more profitable for them.
If they refuse to study this Plan B, there will be years of litigation and legal guerrilla warfare.
France is not a country where employees are thrown away like kleenex!
In 2013, Bridgestone wanted to close its factory in Bari, Italy.
The State launched a hard standoff, co-financed the investments and the factory was maintained: let us do the same at Béthune!
Do you fear a wave of social plans in France?
Bridgestone will unfortunately not be the last.
We will also have social plans which will be directly linked to the Covid crisis, without forgetting businesses, for example, which have not reopened: 2,000 florists already.
READ ALSO>
After Bridgestone, Macron and Castex face the risk of a surge in social plans
How to avoid these closures?
The partial unemployment scheme makes sense, the government has done well to put it in place.
It is better to finance partial activity than unemployed employees.
Let's continue as long as we have not removed the uncertainties related to the virus.
But we must go further, by strengthening support for the most vulnerable categories, temporary workers, short contracts, young people entering the labor market.
And the independent: those, when they have no more activity, they have nothing to live on!
For them, we need an emergency plan.
The government's objective is to create 160,000 jobs in 2021. Pôle emploi speaks of 800,000 job losses over one year.
It is off the mark !
Is the government managing the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic well?
Political Newsletter
Every day, political news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
After the mask scandal, the disorganization of the tests reveals a real lack of preparation.
Regarding the vaccine, the government will no longer have the right to make mistakes.
And the French intend to be the first served, because we have pharmaceutical laboratories located in France.
In this return, the government presents a bill on separatism, does ...
(He cuts)
Finally!
Wait, Emmanuel Macron has been elected since 2017, we know that this problem also existed before.
Three and a half years lost!
The president is a great naive who has not taken the measure of these problems.
He is not comfortable with sovereign matters: security, justice, defense or respect for secularism.
He speaks of separatism because he has problems evoking communitarianism and Islamism.
The president wants France to be at the forefront of 5G.
Do you applaud?
Obviously.
France has already fallen behind on 5G.
It must be filled, it is important for the economy, services to people, for health.
But… when will the white areas end?
Too many French people still do not receive 3G or 4G!
Again, let's not forget the last of the roped ...
READ ALSO>
Emmanuel Macron and the spade on the Amish: the president goes into "campaign" mode
What is your record at the head of Hauts-de-France?
I made work the priority: just before the crisis, unemployment fell twice as fast as the national average.
Under our mandate, the Proch'emploi service alone will have directly enabled nearly 20,000 people to return to work.
We have restored purchasing power with direct aid: transport, childcare, holiday vouchers… never forgetting those who work!
Our common thread: rediscover the pride of being from Hauts-de-France!
For that, I wanted to work with all the local elected officials, without exception.
When you were elected in 2015, you made a commitment to roll back the National Front (FN), which has since become the National Rally (RN) ... Has it really retreated?
Response to regional!
I wanted to tackle the causes of the vote for extremes.
When people feel that their elected officials understand and protect them, why continue to vote for the far right?
My responsibility is to push back the FN by providing solutions to people's problems.
Do you rule out any support from LREM to win?
They will present their list, like others, it is democracy.
The list that I will lead will be a list of regional interest.
No question of being subject to the diktat of the parties.
Our list will be the same in the first and second rounds.
No room for political grub!
The François Baroin option seeming buried, on the right, many eyes are on you for the presidential election.
Do you agree to be that choice by default?
First, François Baroin did not speak, it is up to him to say the role he intends to play.
I know one thing: I am more determined than ever.
I am convinced that Emmanuel Macron is not the one who will succeed in reconciling the French, nor the one who will protect the country.
With him, there is a real risk of victory of extremes.
I am the representative of a social right, popular, able to unite, and which will always refuse the slightest compromise with the extreme right.
READ ALSO>
François Baroin's candidacy for the presidential election: why he does not want
What makes you different from the head of state?
He rules on the right and has even appointed one of your relatives in Matignon.
You mean to tell me that the President of the Republic is on the right?
It is not enough to have been an investment banker to be on the right ... Nor to take a Prime Minister from the right ... If Emmanuel Macron was on the right, he would have made the safety of the French a priority, he would also have fought effectively against illegal immigration.
I am deeply convinced that there is no other way than the return of respect for republican authority.
Are you green?
As a former Minister of Health, I am well aware of the link between health, food and the environment.
I am for an ecology of common sense, which does not humiliate, and which is above all popular, which does not hamper the purchasing power of the French.
I have very young children too.
I see the damage caused by pollution, global warming, the disappearance of species… and I fully appreciate the responsibility of my generation.