The French government’s stated intention to pour yet more francs into Groupe Bull, to the tune of $1,600m, is not drawing support from all government quarters, reports La Tribune-Defosses. Alain Madelin, minister of enterprises and economic development, protested last Friday that the cash injection is a subsidy that represents two years worth of taxes for all of France’s craftsmen. Madelin is charged, above all, with the economic health of small and medium-sized French companies. Madelin said also that the competition between the public sector and the private sector is no longer tenable. The next day, the minister of industry Gerard Longuet, delivered comments designed to patch up the dispute, the paper says. I understand Alain Madelin’s position. The state and its taxpayers cannot rejoice about being forced to assume the consequences of a situation that is certainly difficult, and which shows that the state cannot be a good shareholder in the long term, he said. Nevertheless, it is bound, along with the rest of the group’s shareholders, to exercise its responsibilities. As the government prepares to pour yet more cash in, it is also looking at a change in Bull’s legal status, the paper says.
