Eric is 53 years old, he is an executive at TotalEnergie. This Frenchman, born in the Philippines to a Dutch father, married his Australian wife in Japan and spent a long time lived abroad in more than ten different countries. “It’s part of my DNA. It’s a lot of destinations, cultures, discoveries accumulated over the years. My children were also born in this environment. The oldest was born in Venezuela and the youngest in Australia.”
Today Eric has put down his suitcases in Béarn. He lives in Lescar in a large house with a swimming pool. He has a very good situation and says he is aware of it. “I consider myself privileged. My salary covers our expenses very well. However in 2014, when I voted left for François Hollande, taxes exploded. I saw my purchasing power reduced quite significantly. It was then that I decided to go back on expatriation because I found it almost unbearable.”
Eric is now in charge of the industrial redeployment of the Lacq basin. Over the past five years, he says he has seen a shift in the trend after the crisis and with government initiatives such as Choose France and then with the France Relance plan. “It really accelerated the number of opportunities. Project leaders saw a way to overcome their difficulties by obtaining additional financing to cover their risks. I am an engineer, I work for the industry and I see that things are going in the right direction.”
Eric will therefore vote, as he had already done in 2017, for Emmanuel Macron “because he embodies, he said that willingness to want to strengthen the industry of France, to want to produce in order to generate value. A will that we had perhaps lost a little.” By voting for the outgoing president, Eric also explains that he cares about the image of France abroad, something important for him, given his history. “I vote for someone who is capable of carrying the flag of France. France’s position in terms of international respect is very important. When you are outside of France, that’s what makes you accepted or not, looked at, respected or not.”