Lambres-lez-Douai (France) (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron arrived Monday morning at the industrial site of Renault near Douai (North), to formalize the establishment of a Chinese mega-factory of batteries and praise the French attractiveness.

Accompanied by three ministers, Gérald Darmanin (Interior), Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Industry) and Franck Riester (Foreign trade), the Head of State met Xavier Betrand, president reelected on Sunday of the Hauts-de-France region, who is already posing as the "third man" for the 2022 presidential election.

"Congratulations for yesterday", "happy to find you here", launched the President of the Republic.

"I'm happy to be with you. It's a step, but we all know what's behind it, we each know it," he continued.

Mr. Bertrand, for his part, congratulated himself on having "succeeded in making the RN go back as much", to which Emmanuel Macron approved, saying that "it proves that when we invest, we get there".

Asked by the boss of Hauts-de-France on abstention, Emmanuel Macron still considered that she "says a lot of things" and that "we will all have to draw the consequences".

For his first trip after the scathing defeat of his party at the regional level, the Head of State will formalize the investment of two billion euros by the Chinese group Envision which will create 1,000 jobs on the spot by 2024.

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AESC, the Japanese battery subsidiary of the Chinese green technology group Envision, will manufacture batteries near the Renault plant in Douai (North), for the Losange compact ranges and for other brands.

This future giga-factory is the second announced in France after that of Stellantis (the group born from the marriage of Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler) and TotalEnergies in Douvrin (North).

The Envision plant will also be the centerpiece of the "ElectriCity" cluster that Renault will launch in the North.

The batteries, added to the assembly of the electric Mégane and R5, should breathe new life into the factories of Douai, Maubeuge and Ruitz.

© 2021 AFP