Officially, he is not yet in the campaign.
But it looks a lot like it.
Arnaud Montebourg began this Monday morning a forty-eight hour trip to Brittany, the first stage of a very political Tour de France.
Fifteen days after the launch by his supporters of an embryonic party, the Commitment, and while his presidential ambitions are less and less doubtful, the former Minister of the Economy of François Hollande came to defend his horse battle for economic sovereignty.
Starting with the Nokia site (formerly Alcatel) in Lannion (Côtes-d'Armor), faced with a job protection plan (the fourth in five years) which threatens 211 of the 750 employees.
The champion of demondialization sees in this former telecommunications flagship created by General de Gaulle a symbol of the “defeasance strategy” of the State, recalling that it was when his successor Emmanuel Macron was in Bercy, in 2015, that Alcatel was sold to the Finnish group.
"We made the choice of the wrong horse," laments Arnaud Montebourg, for whom "the Nokia tank is drifting, and perhaps even in the ditch".
But, faced with a hundred employees gathered in front of the entrance to the site, the entrepreneur, who has created three SMEs in the organic food industry, prefers to look to the future and announces a project: "to create a new box".
The promises of an (almost) candidate
“It's time to build a new Alcatel,” he says, lyrically, on a vacant lot where a pallet fire is burning.
This supposes an alliance between the State, the public and the private sector on the basis of an industrial solution which would allow the control of patents, the takeover of sites and the takeover of know-how and employees.
Arnaud Montebourg undertakes to meet union representatives and Nokia France but also to write to the Prime Minister to explain his idea to him which, he assures, interests French industrialists.
Alongside the former socialist, who still claims to be on the left but now calls himself "independent and free", the deputies (LR) Marc Le Fur and Olivier Marleix came to support his approach.
"I do not agree with all of his proposals but I share his diagnosis: we can no longer accept deindustrialisation and its social consequences", confides Marleix.
"If Arnaud Montebourg is on Gaullist positions, I do not see why I will oppose it", adds Le Fur.
Only the senator (PC) Gérard Lahellec puts his feet in the dish by addressing the employees.
"I am not at your side to advertise myself to be President of the Republic tomorrow," he quipped.
READ ALSO>
The flirtation between Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Arnaud Montebourg, it's already over
The inclinations of Montebourg did not escape either the Nokia employees, who variously appreciate the arrival of the almost candidate.
"He did not convince me: when he was in power, he still let things be done which contributed to the current situation", judges Nicolas, a 40-year-old engineer.
But Gildas, 53 years old including 28 at Nokia, gives him a chance.
"He is one of the few high-level politicians who still believe in French companies," greets the fifty-something.
Now, will he be able to act on his convictions?
The task will be enormous.
"" His candidacy is interesting, recognizes Pierre, CDFT chasuble on his shoulders.
Finally, if he starts ... "
On the subject, the champion of Made in France honey is still beating around the bush.
“I have experience, in politics and in entrepreneurship.
I want to use it to put it at the service of my country ”, he confides.
Montebourg also recalls at will that personalities as diverse as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Xavier Bertrand or Yannick Jadot have greeted his ideas: "It is that I must be close to the truth", he relishes.
In any case, the former deputy for Saône-et-Loire promises "many other proposals".
And the continuation of his Tour de France, "if the government lets us out".
He remains mysterious about his next destination.
“I get a lot of invitations,” he smiles.
