2006 Road Privatization Continues to Bruno Le Maire

A “French Fantasy”. This is how the entourage of the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, talks about the highways, ironically, according to which the privatization recorded in 2005 would be a bad deal for the state, and the highway. The companies were sitting on a gold mine. It is difficult to correct this narrative: every three or four years, a parliamentary investigative commission, a competition body or an audit court report comes to put particles in the machine, with critical conclusions about the operation for the state.

The last conclusion of the Financial General Inspectorate on this subject, which A chained duck published its findings earlier in the year, it also makes a grim observation: it emphasizes profitability “much more than expected” Investing in two highway companies, he notes, the state has little or no room to maneuver under concession contracts signed in 2006.

For nearly twenty years, the issue of highway privatization has troubled and divided the political world and continues to resonate strongly in public opinion. Thus, in the winter of 2018, entire barriers were set on fire by “yellow vests” protesting excessively high taxes, which are seen as a symbol of the state abandoning its heritage to the detriment of the middle class. In a sign of the subject’s sensitivity, during the 2022 presidential campaign, Marine Le Pen, the National Rally candidate, as well as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the La France insoumise (LFI) candidate, promised to re-nationalize them.

The posture is more uncomfortable than for others

It is inflation and purchasing power that have opened up the highly sensitive issue of highways amid the taxation of super profits, while public finances are strained by the Covid-19 pandemic and two years of the energy crisis. “The highways are seen as a national heritage that generations of French people helped finance and that we sold to the private sector.Coded by Jérôme Fourque, director of IFOP. Added to this is the feeling that they have become a cash cow for highway companies, to the detriment of motor vehicles. »

In this context, Bruno Le Mai will be heard in the National Assembly on Wednesday, March 22, by the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Sustainable Development and Regional Planning, together with the delegate of the Minister of Transport, Clement Bone. The subject is a little more uncomfortable for him than for others: the former right-wing primary candidate was an adviser to Dominique de Villepin in Matignon in 2005 when privatization was decided, then became director of his office the following year. .