"On the ground, it's a massacre": Arnaud Montebourg warns before the Senate against the failures of the State-guaranteed loan launched during Covid

Former minister under Jean-Marc Ayrault, Arnaud Montebourg was questioned in the Senate on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, as part of the commission of inquiry into the use of public aid in large companies . As former Minister for Industrial Recovery, and now as a businessman, heading 12 companies – several of which receive public aid.

He defended a State shareholder rather than a State that subsidizes, "rather than giving repayable advances, the time has come for a partner State, which will invest, it places its money and participates in the development" of the company. The current period, observes the former minister, closely resembles that of the "backlash of the 2008-2009 recession" . Despite the aid maintained or created, "we have not succeeded in reconstituting the previous industrial GDP despite the efforts. We have gone down a big step that we have never managed to climb back up" .

On this issue, Arnaud Montebourg vigorously attacked the PGE, the state-guaranteed loan that Emmanuel Macron launched in the midst of the pandemic to support businesses. Today, "on the ground, it's a bloodbath," asserts Arnaud Montebourg. The reason? The very design of this loan, totaling 120 billion, granted over 5 years.

"Companies could raise up to 25% of their turnover, to be repaid after five years. 25% of turnover over 5 years is 5% per year. But 5% is the average income of a healthy company ," and asking them to repay in such a short period of time "is what puts them in the red" by absorbing their margins, assures Arnaud Montebourg. "There are still 18 billion PGE to recover, the State is now recovering, and putting boxes in the commercial court, it's a stupid policy."

The USA, he explains, built Covid loans to be repaid over thirty years. It is this long-term choice made by the Biden administration (partly questioned by Trump to this day) which explains, according to the former minister of François Hollande, "that half of the gigafactories which were considering establishing themselves in the European Union finally bought a ticket to the USA following the Inflation Reduction Act" , this major investment plan of 370 billion dollars in 2022.

Without waiting for a European plan, according to him, national policies are needed "not for subsidies but for protection. We must protect Renault or Stellantis without waiting for Ursula von der Leyen." "But if we remain open to the four winds, will this money be of any use?" objects rapporteur Fabien Gay. A rarely spoken word enters the room: " if we had nationalized Arcelor Mittal ten years ago, as I had hoped, we would have a steel in better shape. The British do it, the Japanese do it (...) We don't have a plan and when we have one, we execute it badly." Close the ban.