Marc Ferracci is not really the bearer of good news. The Minister of Industry said he expected other announcements of closures of industrial sites in France “in the coming weeks and months”, after those concerning two Michelin sites this week. He estimated, on France Inter this Saturday, November 9, that the social balance sheet “will be counted in thousands of jobs”, and recommended a European response, in particular to support the automobile sector.
The minister, who went this week to Cholet (Maine-et-Loire) to the site of one of the two Michelin factories promised to close, where he was booed by the employees, criticized the way in which the announcement was made by the group. “The employees are upset, angry, we can understand it because the way in which the announcement was made to the employees was not a dignified manner,” he declared during the program “On n ‘don’t stop the Eco’. “The employees were warned very late, Michelin management did not come to make the announcement to them directly, eye to eye, and that, I think, is regrettable,” added Marc Ferracci .
Commercial protection to be designed at European level
The French tire giant announced to employees on November 5 the closure, before 2026, of its sites in Cholet and Vannes (Morbihan), which have 1,254 employees. Beyond the announcement, he described the contacts with the group’s local elected officials and union organizations as “very constructive”. “Michelin’s commitment is that no one is left without a solution,” he recalled.
For the automobile sector in difficulty, for which he announced an emergency plan, the Minister of Industry praised an “approach to support the European automobile industry”. “The value chains are completely integrated. You have suppliers in Germany for manufacturers who are in France, and you have suppliers who are in France for manufacturers who are in Germany. Commercial protection with regard to vehicles Chinese must be conceived at the European level,” he said.
Among the measures mentioned, he points out “an ecological bonus on a European scale”, a “common European loan” to finance “support mechanisms” for the sector. “From the first half of 2025, the European Commission said that it was going to prioritize a ‘clean industrial act’, that is to say European legislation on clean industry in which we will be able to put in place a certain number of measurements”.