During his visit to the Nexter company in Roanne this Saturday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a new order for 33 guns at the Loire site. This represents 600 million euros of contract and 200 additional jobs. The head of government gave an exclusive interview to France Bleu Saint-Étienne Loire to clarify these announcements.
This is a major announcement for the Roannais these 600 million contract!
Absolutely, which is a continuation of what we have already done. I remind you that the starting point is to enhance our national defense capability. In men first and also in equipment. We have put the package for a few years on the armament industry, so we invest a lot for the benefit of our armies. And indeed, the Roannais is completely concerned.
I remind you that already, over the past four years, the investments we have made, the orders for equipment that we have placed have led to the creation of 600 jobs in Roanne. It’s not nothing. And the contracts that I announced this morning will add 200 more. These are very concrete things.
You have also understood that the fight against unemployment is also a priority objective of the President of the Republic and of the government. We fully meet this requirement.
These 200 additional jobs will be created immediately or will they be spread over time?
They will spread over time. But already, the leaders of the Nexter company that I met told me that they had started to open positions. So it will be staggered, but it will ramp up very quickly.
You have placed great emphasis on employment, on apprenticeship in particular. You spoke with a former Nexter apprentice. This is a formation on which you particularly want to insist. Is this the future?
I want to insist because it simply works. In 2021, we will have made 720,000 apprentices, a historic record. Why learning? Why not learning? A single figure: more than 80% of them find a job, including permanent contracts. So it’s a formula that works. So we had to boost. We have put the means and we see it.
It is open to all. This is a formula that works and which obviously applies to the arms industry. But to all employers, I say: try apprenticeship.
You talked about reindustrialization during your speech. Is this a government objective?
It’s more than a goal, it’s an absolute necessity. I believe that first of all, we were wrong, collectively, to deindustrialize our country. Since the beginning of the 1980s, we have nevertheless lost 50,000 industrial jobs per year. Look at this economic health crisis that we have experienced, which is not over, of course, but which has been very strong. It showed that national and European sovereignty was absolutely essential.
Here we are talking about the arms industries. But what can I say, since I’m talking about health, the pharmaceutical industry, the production of medicines, health products that have been left behind in other countries, particularly in Southeast Asia?
Thanks to the recovery plan, thanks to the France 2030 plan that the President of the Republic announced a few weeks ago, we are relocating, we are reindustrialising. Admittedly, we are only at 30,000 industrial jobs created. It’s a radical change from previous destruction phases, but you really, really have to go all out. It is a matter of land use planning.
I am in Roanne, these jobs are everywhere in this industrial fabric. It is a question of jobs, but it is also, I repeat, a question of independence and national sovereignty.
You also came to Roanne to somewhat defend your government’s record. You insisted on the military programming law which entered into force in 2019. You recalled at length your action to create jobs to reindustrialize the country. Is it the start of a campaign?
You will observe that I have been Prime Minister since the beginning of July 2020. I have far exceeded 300 trips to the provinces. So we can call it countryside, I call it land. That is to say that I go into contact with my fellow citizens to listen to them, to meet them.
I was extremely interested in the discussions I had with the employees of the company I visited. Then after we went to a market [ndlr :à Charlieu]. But indeed, it is also an opportunity for me to explain what we do, to explain who we are and to be accountable.
So yes, you are right. I am aware that there will be a big deadline, but after all, it is also right that the French men and women be informed as correctly as possible. Afterwards, they form their opinion of the results of what we do. There are enough people who criticize it for me to still have not only the right, but also the duty, to explain it over and over again to our fellow citizens.
To prepare the ground a little bit for the President of the Republic by going to shake hands with Charlieu?
I repeat to you, I have been in the field since I became Prime Minister and in fact, as an extension of who I am and the mayor that I was. I know that we are in an election campaign or that the election campaign for some has begun. The President of the Republic has not yet said whether he would be a candidate. I believe that for the time being, the government is continuing and will continue to govern, to exercise its responsibilities. But for me, the exercise of responsibilities cannot be separated from teaching and meeting with my fellow citizens.