Regional elections are fast approaching, and the propaganda campaign is ramping up to cruising speed. It’s time to start running, and fast, if we want to catch the voters…
A political movement that claims to be close to the people, even the grassroots, the lower France, the FN has built its economic program focused on small businesses and the world of craftsmanship, a local economy that barely swims in globalization.
Olivier Bettati, head of list 06 of Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, presented it with the help of Franck Allisio, spokesperson for the regional presidency candidate, who is also a defector from the former UMP: “Economic players have found our program effective.”
The program is built around a critical analysis of the current situation (debt, confusion between objectives and means, disappointing employment results…) and a series of proposals gathered in a Regional Economic Development Plan.
Starting with the observation that 90% of SMEs have less than 10 employees, a figure repeated among artisanal businesses where, in 71% of cases, they have less than 5 employees, the FN’s plan includes an innovative tool: a Business Partnership Fund that would address their financial needs in terms of support and innovation, accompanied by genuine simplification.
This fund will clearly integrate the banking system for cash flow needs and will provide advice and assistance for regional, national, and community aid applications. Additionally, it can acquire stakes in innovative companies during the startup phase.
The new competencies in vocational training allocated to Regions as part of the territorial reform mean that they can intervene in vocational training to align it with the needs of business trades and thereby promote employment.
The numbers are a reminder: PACA is a region where the unemployment rate is higher than the national average (11.6% compared to 10%). But, at the same time, 24,000 job positions remain vacant.
The proposal is self-evident: the existing Trades Observatory will be reoriented and tasked with developing a map of needs, allowing for the maximum anticipation of changes in the general framework.
In the age of globalization, the FN wants to take the opposite path and launches the model of “regional economic patriotism.”
Priority in public procurement will be given to local businesses through tricky interpretations of municipal and community regulations. An example is the return to in-house management of public services previously entrusted to specialized companies.
Nothing new, all candidates propose it in every election!
To be honest, in the recent past, we used to say the opposite: public functions should focus on activities central to their functions and responsibilities, hence the birth of public service delegations. But, like all fashions, this one changes with the seasons. And here we are with all these new proposals for in-house management (motivated by saying exactly the same things we used to hear, but in the opposite direction) in times of contrary decisions.
How do you expect the citizen to make sense of it all!
In conclusion, a very voluntarist program aimed at an electorate representative of a marginal economic world, imbued with a strong sense of fear and in need of protection.
Saying that it goes in the direction of modernity…
As for the proclaimed “simplification shock” with all these commissions, this departmental decentralization when we created macro-regions to increase their size and boost their economic weight and impact, is there not an obvious contradiction?
