Prime Minister Edouard Philippe did not rule out nationalizations on Tuesday to face the coronavirus crisis, assuring that for the airline Air France the state was ready to "take responsibility as a shareholder".
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"Ensuring that essential businesses do not disappear"
"If we had to go that far, then we would do it. Not by ideology (...) but to ensure that essential businesses (...) do not disappear," said the Prime Minister. "We will be there, the President of the Republic said" so "that our national company can overcome this crisis," he added, a few hours after the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire said that "all means" would be used "to protect large French companies", including "nationalization if necessary" operations.