MACRON. “It touches me one without moving the other”, reacts Emmanuel Macron to the criticisms which rain on him, since the World revealed his close links with the company Uber when he was Minister of the Economy.
“If I had to do it again, I would do it again,” said Emmanuel Macron to the press, on the sidelines of his trip to Isère. For two days that the revelations of the Uber files have been linked, the President of the Republic has finally expressed himself, in a few words, on the subject, this Tuesday, July 12. Accused of having favored the establishment of the company Uber in France by simplifying the law governing VTC drivers, Emmanuel Macron “assumes”, affirming: “We must fight by all means against mass unemployment. I assume, because it has created jobs and that is the role of the Ministry of the Economy.” Asked about the virulent reactions of the opposition, in particular of the Nupes which promises a commission of inquiry, the head of state did not mince his words, quoting Jacques Chirac: “It touches me one without moving the ‘other. […] They have lost the compass! When you believe in social justice, in equal opportunity, you have to fight so that young people who come from difficult backgrounds have jobs. It was never their fight, it was mine!
Let’s get back to the case. Sunday, July 10, the World publishes an article revealing the privileged links of Emmanuel Macron with lobbyists from the company Uber, between 2014 and 2016, when he was Minister of the Economy. The investigation is based on internal company documents provided to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). It concludes that there is a “deal” between Emmanuel Macron and Uber in 2015 aimed at simplifying the law regulating VTC drivers in France. On Monday July 11, the internal source at Uber behind these documents turned out to be Mark MacGann, the lobbyist with a close link to Emmanuel Macron. Mark MacGann even told the Guardian that he participated in the financing of En Marche! and Macron’s 2016 presidential campaign, on a personal basis.
A secret “deal” between Macron and Uber?
The investigation of World does not hesitate to affirm the existence of a “deal” concluded between Uber and the then Minister of the Economy. What is it exactly? Let’s go back to the facts: in October 2014, the Thévenoud law, passed in the Assembly, strictly regulated the conditions for becoming a VTC driver. In fact, this law prohibited Uber’s new service, UberPop, whose principle was that anyone could declare themselves an Uber driver. It was then that, according to information from the World, executives from Uber France met Emmanuel Macron, Minister of the Economy, and found significant support in the future president. In the eighteen months following Macron’s arrival in Bercy, the daily counted 17 interviews between Uber and the team of the future President of the Republic.
More specifically, the “deal” referred to The world would have been tied in July 2015: exchanges of SMS suggest a “win-win” agreement. Emmanuel Macron undertook to simplify the regulations concerning the conditions of access to the VTC driver’s license. In exchange, Uber gave up its UberPop service. The Minister of the Economy then suggested that Uber draft amendments to the law governing VTC drivers and send them directly to the socialist deputy Luc Belot, who is very favorable to the company. This is what was done: the amendments were all rejected in the Assembly, but Emmanuel Macron took the opportunity to announce a decree which took up the main lines. In early 2016, this decree drastically reduced the number of hours of training required to obtain a VTC driver’s license. In the process, Uber gave up its UberPop service.
During the exchanges of July 3 which ratified this “deal”, Emmanuel Macron assured Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, that he had received the approval of the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, and Bernard Cazeneuve, Minister of the Interior. “We had a meeting yesterday with the Prime Minister,” wrote Macron. “Cazeneuve will make sure the taxis stay calm and I will meet everyone next week to prepare the reform and correct the law. Caz has accepted the deal.” Asked by the World Monday, July 11, Bernard Cazeneuve denied having knowledge of the agreement in question. For his part, François Hollande, interviewed by Releaseassures that there “has never been, at the level of the Elysée, the knowledge of the slightest deal. If it was done, the Elysée was not aware.”
Uber seeks help from Emmanuel Macron via text message
The world also recounts several episodes where members of Uber, in disadvantageous situations, directly addressed Emmanuel Macron to ask for his support. In October, Laurent Nuñez, police chief of Marseille, signed an order prohibiting Uber in part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department. Immediately, an SMS was sent to Macron by Mark MacGann, Uber’s chief lobbyist: “Could you ask your office to help us understand what is going on?“ To which the Minister of the Economy replied that he was going to “look at this personally”. three days later, the decree was revised and the ban disappeared. Laurent Nuñez, who has become a close adviser to the Elysée, now provides the World not been under any pressure.
A few months earlier, in July 2015, during a search conducted by the Budget Ministry at the headquarters of Uber in Paris, for suspicion of tax evasion, Mark MacGann had already turned to Emmanuel Macron by SMS : “Sorry to bother you, but at the moment there are about twenty civil servants from the public finance department. They say they will put [nos] leaders in custody. […] Can you ask your services to advise us?” This SMS had remained unanswered.
Former Uber lobbyist Mark MacGann claims he helped fund Macron’s party in 2017
First anonymous source, former Uber lobbyist Mark MacGann revealed his identity on Monday July 11 when answering questions from the British daily The Guardian. He then confided to having had a certain closeness with Emmanuel Macron in his years at Bercy. He even indicates that he helped him finance the creation of his party En Marche!, in 2016, when he launched his first presidential campaign. Mark MacGann specifies, however, that this aid had “absolutely nothing to do with Uber”, a company which he had already left.
Are Emmanuel Macron’s links with Uber illegal?
If the relationships described by the World between the current head of state and Uber raise ethical questions, they do not fall under the law. As Édouard Perrin, investigative journalist, recalled on Franceinfo on Monday July 11, Emmanuel Macron “can say that he defends interests which are under the jurisdiction of his ministry”. On the other hand, “In terms of morality, there is a concern for transparency”. the World indeed notes that the interviews of Emmanuel Macron’s team with Uber in 2014 and 2015 are never on the minister’s agenda. But there again, nothing illegal, as recalled by Michel Sapin, great architect of the Sapin law which governs the links between politicians and lobbyists: “Today there is no mandatory transparency of agendas. However, if such a meeting takes place at the request of a lobbyist, it must now be declared to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life. This was not the case in 2015. The fact that Emmanuel Macron met with the management of Uber off the agenda, in legal terms, is nothing shocking. In ethical terms, that’s another matter.”
How does the Elysée respond to the accusations against Emmanuel Macron?
Contacted by the editorial staff of World, the Elysée affirms that the relations between Emmanuel Macron and Uber France did not go beyond the framework of his functions as Minister of the Economy: the current president was “naturally led to exchange with many companies engaged in the profound change of services that occurred during the years mentioned, which should be facilitated by unraveling certain administrative or regulatory locks”. Emmanuel Macron could well be directly questioned on the subject in the coming days: according to information from Teleramaan interview with the President of the Republic is scheduled for July 14 by the TF1 and France 2 channels.
Emmanuel Macron received on Monday July 11 the unfailing support of the president of the Renaissance group in the Assembly, Aurore Bergé, for whom “there is no deal, there is no consideration, there is a minister who received great business leaders and that’s normal.” Support also from the current Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who assures that his predecessor “was totally in his role as Minister of the Economy by having contacts with the president of Uber and seeking to open the market. online platforms”, its role being “to ensure that there is competition in a certain number of markets so that our compatriots can pay less for a certain number of services”.
The left and the RN evoke a commission of inquiry into the links between Macron and Uber
The revelations of World did not fail to make the opposition react. “Macron or the looting of the country. Advisor and minister to François Hollande and lobbyist for a US multinational aimed at permanently deregulating labor law. And this even, ignoring court decisions”, wrote Mathilde Panot, the president of the group of the Insoumis at the National Assembly, Monday July 11. There was also indignation on the side of the communist deputy Fabien Roussel, who denounced “damning revelations about the active role played by Emmanuel Macron, then minister, to facilitate the development of Uber in France. Against all our rules, all our social achievements and against the workers’ rights.”
This Tuesday, July 12, the Nupes promised the creation of a commission of inquiry into the links between Macron and Uber during his visit to Bercy. Commission also requested by the National Union of Taxis which, through its president Rachid Boudjema, said on Tuesday on Franceinfo his “feeling that there was betrayal”. On the side of the RN, according to Jean-Philippe Tanguy, we would rather see an investigation within the framework of “a resale right” on the Alstom affair, which has already been the subject of a parliamentary commission of inquiry in 2019 .