“We have the feeling that there has been betrayal”reacts on Tuesday July 12 on franceinfo Rachid Boudjema, president of the National Union of Taxis, after the revelations on the links between Emmanuel Macron, when he was Minister of the Economy, and the American company Uber.
franceinfo: In October 2015, you were in negotiations with the government, and in particular the prefect of police of Marseille, about the establishment of Uber, what did he tell you?
Rachid Boudjema: There was really a disturbance of public order with this application. The prefect had taken strong and unprecedented measures. He had decided to ban the Uber application in the main districts of Marseille. It was a first.
A few hours later, the prefect backpedals. In the meantime, there was an exchange of text messages between an Uber lobbyist and Emmanuel Macron, but the prefect says today that there was no intervention from Bercy that day. How did he justify to you the fact of having changed his mind?
He evoked an error of interpretation, an anomaly. According to him, the decree had been badly constructed so it was necessary, for legal reasons, to take another one so that controls are increased. But at the time, we were far from imagining the negotiations that were above us.
Today, in what state of mind are you after discovering this deal made at the time between Emmanuel Macron and Uber?
It’s a form of disappointment. We have the feeling that there was betrayal. We have the feeling that the government of the time, in particular the minister in question, favored a foreign company to the detriment of small French companies. What shocks me is that some journalists, rather than salute the work of investigative journalists, criticize by saying ‘Move on, there’s nothing to see, there’s nothing serious’. It’s quite shocking because when you have a minister working as a lobbyist for a foreign company that doesn’t pay its taxes in France, it’s serious.
Are you calling for a parliamentary commission of inquiry and, perhaps even, legal action?
Both, in the name of the safety of public debate. There must be a parliamentary inquiry so that there is no longer this mistrust. Because from now on, we will always imagine that, no matter how well you demonstrate legally, people pass you by because they have the means. They approach parliamentarians who are preparing turnkey amendments. You have ministers who intervene. There must be a parliamentary inquiry or even legal action if there was an offense of favouritism.
In your opinion, what is illegal in what Emmanuel Macron did?
For me, what is illegal is that he favored a foreign company to the detriment of small French companies which do not have the means. Why ? Because we pay our taxes in France while others are exempt. And during this time, they have the means to water everyone with their way of doing lobbyists. We are not in a Machiavellian society. We are in a State of law, that is to say that at some point, we do things fairly. There, we have economists who claim to be economists, but in reality, work for Uber.
In what situation are taxis today? Has everyone found their account and their balance?
We haven’t recovered much. The social conditions of taxis have deteriorated drastically. Where we taxis used to work 10 hours a day, today we manage to work until 2 p.m. Taxis are stricken with diseases because they work enormously, constantly, because of a wild and unfair and ill-defined competition. Every day, you have this application which does not respect the regulations in force, in particular the Grandguillaume law. It always encourages its drivers to stay on public roads, which is illegal. It does not practice prior reservation whereas a VTC, normally, must be ordered in advance. He must be from his registration seat or off the road. Every day, you see them prowling around Paris, in circulation, waiting for customers. That is illegal and nothing is being done. Now we understand why. Because we know that there is no political will above us.