French opposition representatives on Sunday denounced a “secret deal” between French President Emmanuel Macron, when he was a minister in Francois Hollande’s Socialist government, and ride-hailing giant Uber. country.”
Allegations of the deal’s existence were revealed in a recent investigation by leading international news outlets based on leaked files known as the “Uber Files” on social media platforms. The Uber Files investigation is based on thousands of internal Uber documents sent to the Guardian by an anonymous source and obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The International Federation of Investigative Journalists is working on this issue with 42 media partners around the world. For its part, the French newspaper “Le Monde” highlighted the links between the American company and Macron during his tenure as economy minister.
A Le Monde newspaper report, citing documents, text messages and witnesses, said Uber had a secret “deal” with Macron when he was economy minister between 2014 and 2016. The newspaper talks about meetings held in the minister’s office and numerous exchanges (appointments, calls and text messages) between Uber France teams on the one hand and Macron and his advisers on the other.
The “Le Monde” report highlights what the newspaper says is the aid given to “Uber” by the Macron-led ministry, with the aim of strengthening the company’s position in France.
Opposition French lawmakers condemned what appeared to be close cooperation between Macron and Uber, at a time when the company was trying to avoid strict government regulation of the transport sector. Uber France has confirmed that the two parties have been in contact. The meetings with Macron took place as part of his regular ministerial duties. Macron, who was economy minister at the time, was “certainly” in touch with “many companies involved in the profound transformation that has taken place in the service sector in the years in question,” the Elysee Palace said. Facilitate it by opening administrative and regulatory barriers. However, MP Mathilde Panno, head of the “France Prot” parliamentary group (extreme left), condemned on Twitter that Macron was “plundering the country” when he was “consultant and minister to Francois Hollande”.
As for the leader of the Communist Party (BCF), Fabien Roussel, he felt that the revelations “show that Emmanuel Macron, when he was minister, played a role in facilitating the development of Uber in France, against all our rules”. , is against all our social rights and all the rights of our workers. Communist legislator Pierre Dareville called for a parliamentary inquiry into the case.
In turn, John Bartella, head of the far-right National Rally party, wrote on Twitter that the revelations showed that Macron’s life was aimed at “serving personal interests before national interests, often abroad.” (AFP)