Based on the testimony of various individuals and documents, including several text messages exchanged, Maude concluded that a secret “deal” had been struck between Uber and Mr. Macron in Bercy.
“Secret” agreement against the violation of “all our rules”, “looting the country”: elected officials of the French left yesterday Sunday loudly denounced the relations of President Emmanuel Macron, during his time as Minister of Economy, with the company Uber, after press disclosures.
In the framework of the “Uber Files”, an investigation based on thousands of internal documents of the road transport company sent by an anonymous source to the British newspaper The Guardian and then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its 42 media partners, the newspaper Le Monde highlighted the relations between American business and Emmanuel Macron at the time he was still Minister of Economy (2014-2016).
Based on the testimony of various individuals and documents, including several text messages exchanged, Maude concluded that a secret “deal” had been struck between Uber and Mr. Macron in Bercy. The newspaper speaks of meetings in the minister’s office and of many discussions (in personal appointments, during phone calls, via SMS…) between Uber and Emmanuel Macron or his advisers, relying mainly on the accounts of these contacts, compiled by lobbyist Mark McGann.
He pointed to practices intended to help Uber consolidate its position in France, such as suggesting the company send ready-made, “turnkey” amendments to MPs.
Asked about this by AFP, Uber’s French subsidiary confirmed that there had been meetings with Mr Macron: “they concerned his area of ​​responsibility as Minister of Economy and Information Technology”, in charge of its activity.
Uber’s French subsidiary pointed to the suspension of its Uber Pop service, which it offered from February 2014 to 2015 and allowed users to call private drivers, not licensed taxis or its own employees. The suspension of the service “was not followed by more favorable regulation”, as the idea that a secret “deal” had been struck would suggest, Uber’s French subsidiary insisted.
“Red carpet”
The Elysée, for its part, assured AFP that Mr. Macron, as Minister of the Economy, “of course” had contacts “with various companies that were involved in profound changes in the service sectors that occurred in the years in question”, which ” facilitated by removing administrative and regulatory obstacles”.
But the head of the parliamentary group La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), Mathilde Panot, denounced on Twitter the “plundering of the country” as Emmanuel Macron was both “advisor and minister of François Hollande” and “lobbyist on behalf of an American multinational that intended to permanently deregulate labor legislation”.
While the head of the Communist Party (PCF) Fabian Rousselle called the “revelations about the active role played by Emmanuel Macron, then minister, in order to facilitate the development of Uber in France” incredible, “against all our rules, against all our social achievements and against workers’ rights”.
For Uber, an “investigative committee” should be set up in the French National Assembly, said Communist MP Pierre Dareville.
At the other end of the political spectrum, Jordan Bardela, the president of the National Alarm (Rassemblement national, RN, far right), judged that “Emmanuel Macron’s path had a cohesive factor, a common thread: the service of private interests, often foreign , before national interests”.
Asked about this by AFP, former Socialist Party (Parti socialiste, PS) MP Tomas Tevnou, who gave his name to the October 2014 law that more specifically defined the rights and obligations of taxis and chauffeured transport vehicles , estimated that Emmanuel Macron was a “privileged interlocutor” of Uber.
They had discussed the matter in the spring of 2014, when he was deputy general secretary at the Elysee. “He was always looking to roll out the red carpet for Uber,” he said.
The former MP also questioned the role of Elizabeth Bourne, who “knew these matters very well”. The head of government was Minister of Transport when new legislation on road transport was approved, then Minister of Labor when social dialogue was promoted in the field of transport by cars with drivers, however “without giving the status of employees to Uber drivers”, Mr. Tevnou pointed out .
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