Amiens (AFP)

"I told the truth": Back on the site of the former factory Whirlpool, in his hometown of Amiens, Emmanuel Macron defended step by step his commitment to former employees, ulcers and accusing him of being "fooled" by the buyer in liquidation.

Shortly after arriving at the factory, Macron had a tough exchange with the former Whirlpools. "Everything has been verified", replied Emmanuel Macron, claiming to have "no regrets".

With them, the deputy Insoumis of the Somme François Ruffin. The elected representative had estimated shortly before the arrival of the head of state, "come two years ago tell all employees that they will be taken back while behind there is nothing, it is us take for cons And come to say that today Emmanuel Macron, as if he were a citizen lambda (...) is disappointed, it is we take for cons a second time.

"I told the truth to Whirlpool ... (...) Did I say: we're all going to save you, we're going to keep the business?" I said, "those who tell you that you lie, "had hammered the head of state, a few minutes before returning to the scene of his campaign most emblematic.

"I told them: we will commit to you," added the president, who faces a tense social context before the December 5th strike day.

Visiting Amiens in the inter-two-round of the 2017 presidential election, Mr. Macron was preceded by a few hours by a surprise trip from his rival Marine Le Pen, who came into contact with the angry employees of the establishment in large numbers. difficulty. Mr. Macron responded by exchanging with employees in the factory parking lot, in an atmosphere of tire smoke and shrill whistles.

Mr. Macron returned in October 2017 for a visit with a buyer, largely helped by the state. But this company (WN), the industrial picard Nicolas Decayeux, was liquidated in August 2019, for lack of commercial opportunities. She then employed 182 people.

"There was a first project but it was not at the end, it is not the fault of the state or the services of the state," Macron said, noting that "not the state that hires people when things go wrong".

The head of state began a new visit to the site now occupied by the company Ageco Agencement, specializing in the layout for mass distribution and communities, which has hired 44 former WN.

On Thursday, some former employees of the factory marched with "yellow vests", high school students, CGT activists and Sud-Solidaires in the city center of Amiens. A hundred or so demonstrators tried to reach the Citadel where the head of state inaugurated the site of the university but were blocked by the police.

- "Ask for accounts" -

"In #Whirlpool, #Macron will come to contemplate the fiasco of his politics: the one that puts no limit to the wild globalization and abandons the French industry," tweeted his opponent in the presidential Marine Le Pen.

For his first day visiting Amiens, Emmanuel Macron had held Thursday to extol the merits of France, regretting a "too negative country". "We have the impression if we listen collectively, if we plug the radio or turn on the TV, that everything is terrible (...) At this moment our country is, I think, too negative about itself" said the head of state in responding to students at the inauguration of the new university site.

And to start his day, he focused on improving rail services in the Somme, talking with the new CEO of SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou. It should also announce the finalization of the five billion euro financing of the Seine-Nord canal, designed to facilitate the transport of goods between the Benelux countries and the Paris region. Opening planned in a decade.

© 2019 AFP