Focus/Manufacturing
Ghosts of France’s Industrial Past Haunt Macron
Fighting for industry is part of the French spirit—but is it holding back the president’s vision?
Barely two weeks into his presidency, Emmanuel Macron was confronted by an angry factory worker on the streets of Bellac in central France.
The man was demanding the government save his job at the GM&S auto components plant in the nearby town of La Souterraine. Such encounters are fast becoming a leitmotif of the Macron era: The worried worker could have come from the Whirlpool plant in Amiens, the STX shipyard in Saint-Nazaire or the Dunkirk-based maker of construction machinery, Tim SA.