French opposition politicians from the left and far right seized on reports of secret unannounced meetings and the promise of a “deal” brokered by Macron within the government to help Uber. The revelations contained in the Uber files – a cache of 124,000 corporate documents leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – come at a difficult time for Macron’s centrists, who lost control of parliament in last month’s general election . Several figures from the left to the far right, including the leader of the left-wing CGT union, called for a parliamentary inquiry. The records suggest that the pro-business Macron, who was re-elected French president in April, was close enough to Uber executives during his two years at the economy ministry from 2014 to 2016 that they did not think twice about reaching out. with him for possible help. raid on premises by tax and other authorities. Macron, who promised in his first successful presidential campaign to make France a “startup nation”, failed to record at least three of four meetings with Uber CEO and founder Travis Kalanick detailed in the files. While serving as finance minister, the former banker told the tech company he had brokered a secret “deal” with a bitterly divided socialist cabinet then in power. Q&A
What are Uber records?
projection The Uber Files is a global investigation based on a trove of 124,000 documents leaked to the Guardian by Mark MacGann, Uber’s former chief lobbyist in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The data consists of emails, iMessages and WhatsApp exchanges between the top executives of the Silicon Valley giant, as well as memos, presentations, notebooks, briefing documents and invoices. The leaked records cover 40 countries and span from 2013 to 2017, the period when Uber was aggressively expanding around the world. They reveal how the company broke the law, deceived police and regulators, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments around the world. To facilitate a global public interest investigation, the Guardian shared the data with 180 journalists in 29 countries through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The investigation was managed and led by the Guardian with the ICIJ. In a statement, Uber said: “We have not and will not condone past behavior that is clearly inconsistent with our current values. Instead, we’re asking the public to judge us based on what we’ve done in the last five years and what we’ll do in the years to come.” Thanks for your response. Aurélien Taché, a member of parliament who was elected for Macron’s party in 2017 but was re-elected this year as part of the left-wing opposition coalition, Nupes, told France Info radio: “It’s almost like a bad thriller – meetings and appointments that were hidden…” He said the fact that the company sought advice from Macron during a raid on their offices by government inspectors should be investigated. “It’s a state scandal,” he said. Alain Vidalies, who was the Socialist transport secretary at the time Uber was trying to establish itself in France, told France Info radio that he was “amazed” by the extent of Macron’s support in the Uber lobby, particularly that Macron had received part in “quasi-secret meetings with the company, which he called a kind of ‘complicity.’ He said the French people had a right to an “answer and clarification” from the executive. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Mathilde Panot, the parliamentary leader of the hard-left opposition party France Unbowed, denounced what she described as the “plundering of the country” during Macron’s time as economy minister. He described Macron as a “lobbyist” for a “US multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labor law”. In a session of parliament on Monday afternoon, Panot referred to the Uber files while presenting her party’s vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne. Pano concluded by asking lawmakers if they agreed with Macron, whom he called the “lobbyist president” in backing Uber. Fabien Roussel, leader of the French Communist Party, described the revelations, detailed in Le Monde, as devastating: “Against all our rules, all our social laws and workers’ rights.” Members of France’s lower house of parliament accepted there was no constitutional mechanism to question Macron directly about the content of the Uber files, but opposition parties suggested it was important for parliamentary committees to find a way to investigate. The head of the left-wing CGT union, Philippe Martinez, said: “This is the minimum [Emmanuel Macron] explains what he did and how he contributed not only to the establishment of Uber in France, but, thanks to a law called the “Macron law”, he also contributed to the removal of a part of the labor code in favor of this kind of economic activity with social consequences for workers. However, Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union, said it was not surprising to hear the extent to which Uber had a “lobby mentality” in order to “deregulate, make money with so little regard for what is there in terms of the law . in various countries, and especially regarding the rights of workers”. Jordan Bardella, of the far-right National Rally party, said the revelations showed Macron’s career had “a common thread: serving private interests, often foreign, before national interests”. Do you have information on this story? Email [email protected] or use Signal or WhatsApp to text (UK) +44 7584 640566 or (US) +1 646 886 8761. The president’s office told AFP that at the time Macron was, as finance minister, “naturally” in contact with “many companies involved in the profound change in services that has occurred in the aforementioned years, which should be facilitated by disclosure of certain administrative or regulatory locks’. It was no secret that Macron was enthusiastic about American tech companies, which he saw as foreign and innovative. He once told Mediapart that banning Uber would be tantamount to sending unemployed youths from run-down banlieues “back there to sell drugs”. But his proximity to the taxi company was never fully revealed. Macron showed a “clear desire to work around the [new] Thévenoud legislation,” according to Uber’s memo for a meeting with the young finance minister about a law that would radically curtail the role of taxi services. Macron’s support has been crucial for Uber as it has faced street protests from French taxi drivers, who must complete 300 hours or training and face a limited quota of expensive taxi licenses. Aurore Bergé, the parliamentary leader of Macron’s centrist party, said Macron was just doing his job and doing it well. He told CNews that Uber had created a service that the French wanted, and Macron had rightly facilitated the arrival of companies that created jobs. As for allegations of collusion, he said: “There was no collusion, there was no supply.”
