Report France
[Voter card] Entrepreneurs strangled by the energy crisis
Audio 02:40
Rising gas and oil prices have greatly complicated the operations of transporters.
© AP / Bob Edme
By: Pauline Gleize Follow
3 mins
Energy prices have exploded in recent months in France.
Even before the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, which worsened the situation, the surge in prices had become a subject of concern for the French.
Today, our voter card takes us to meet business leaders particularly exposed to energy prices.
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The explosion in fuel prices is a headache for transporters.
Beyond the impact of the price of diesel on margins, the surge in gas also raised doubts about Charles Perrin, boss of MDS and president for the Center region of the National Federation of Road Carriers, on the purchasing strategies of new vehicles.
“
There is no longer any profitability on the gas vehicle due to the increase in gas.
Except that the problem is that for example in 2024 on Île-de-France, with the ZFE zones, we will no longer be able to return with diesel vehicles.
»
Like many entrepreneurs, Charles Perrin does not openly expose his political preferences, but details his expectations: “
The next president or the next president, we expect consultation and listening.
If people eat and dress, it's because there's a truck that delivered the goods.
We are an essential link and that must be taken into account.
We were congratulated after the first confinement, but that we forgot two years later.
»
A mission to defend the industry
Since then, faced with the crisis, the government has decided to release an envelope of 400 million euros to help road hauliers and a discount on diesel and gas prices.
The price of electricity on the wholesale market also soared this winter to the point that the Nyrstar zinc refinery, which consumes the equivalent of a city like Lyon, stopped producing for several weeks.
So, for Éric Brassart, Managing Director France, energy is an industrial policy issue:
“
For the government, the mission is to defend the industry.
Before seeing it go elsewhere, it must manage to survive in France and not die of too high price equations.
So working on price stability over the long term is a good thing.
»
“Events were just unpredictable”
Artisanal bakeries are also energy-intensive.
“
It has a huge impact for us.
Our ovens are on almost all day.
»
Éloïse Berthe, co-director of three bakeries, does not expect anything in particular from the leaders on this question.
“
We cannot demand that the government protect us from everything.
We go through events that were just unpredictable.
It's just an unlikely sci-fi scenario, but we go through them, we defend our interests.
I'm pretty confident.
»
Bread unites everyone, she says, so there's no question of positioning yourself for a candidate.
Éloïse Berthe even speaks of a duty of neutrality!
In any case, the choice in the voting booth promises to be difficult.
“
We could probably make the perfect candidate if we took a little bit of each.
But obviously, the consensual presidency is not quite the idea of our political system.
»
Ecology, purchasing power and the valuation of work are among its main concerns.
She, who feels the mood of the French every day, also expects the next tenant of the Élysée to reassure them.
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