“Uber continues its lobbying action with the French government”, assured on franceinfo Monday, July 11, Thomas Thévenoud, former minister and former PS deputy. The socialist is at the origin of the law of 2014 which regulates the cohabitation between taxis and VTC. A survey conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its partners, in particular Radio France, reveals that Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy, facilitated the establishment of Uber, a ride-hailing giant which didn’t have good press in the rest of François Hollande’s government. The former secretary ofState in charge of Foreign Trade considers that the current President of the Republic “was a kind of sales representative or lobbyist for an American company which had decided to make the conquest of the French market its priority”.
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franceinfo: Are you surprised by these revelations?
Thomas Thévenoud: Emmanuel Macron’s benevolence towards Uber really started very early. The first time I met Emmanuel Macron was on March 12, 2014. At the time, he was not yet Minister of the Economy and even less President of the Republic. He is Deputy Secretary General of the Élysée. At the time, there were two camps: the pro-taxis and the pro-Uber. Emmanuel Macron explains to me that taxis are old-fashioned, outdated, obsolete and that Uber must be allowed to develop in France, because it will create a lot of jobs. Me, I explain to him that we are going to modernize taxis, that has been done, and impose rules on Uber, in particular prohibiting a service called UberPop where anyone could decide overnight to drive in Paris and become a taxi or VTC.
Did Emmanuel Macron exceed his rights as Minister of the Economy?
He was a kind of sales representative or lobbyist for an American company which had decided to make the conquest of the French market its priority. At the time, it must be remembered, Uber had a very aggressive attitude. When I draft my law in the National Assembly, Uber refuses to participate in the drafting of this law and says that it will attack it. Me, on the contrary, with other deputies, with the national representation, I try to lay down rules because France is not the Wild West and we must respect a certain number of rules of the game.
You also implicate Elisabeth Borne, who is now Prime Minister. What role did she play?
She cannot fail to know a certain number of things, since she was Minister of Transport at the time of the mobility orientation law called the LOM law. There was a provision in that law that sought to protect Uber in a form of a social responsibility charter. Uber issued a charter, had its drivers sign it, in exchange for which there could be no lawsuits against Uber. Who was the Minister of Transport at the time? Elisabeth Borne. A few weeks ago, we tried to create an ersatz social dialogue in the sector by organizing an election to create representatives of VTC drivers. It was a total fiasco since there was only 1.6% participation among VTC drivers. Who was the Minister of Labor? Elisabeth Borne. She knows the subject very well. She knows Uber very well, since Uber today spends thousands of euros on lobbying. All of this is documented. The High Authority for Transparency in Public Life has said so. Uber continues its lobbying action with the French government.