France

Companies, In Europe 21st August 2023

Possible tax on motorway and airport concessionaires in France aims to raise around €2.5 billion between 2024 and 2030

Banco Sabadell| France is considering going ahead with its plan to raise taxes on motorway concessionaires in France and could now also include airport concessionaires. The aim would be to raise some €2.5 billion between 2024 and 2030. In addition, taxes could be raised on first class airline tickets, on larger vehicles because of their higher CO2 emissions, and on companies with fleets of vehicles. We recall that in June…

Companies, In Europe 26th May 2023

French State raises its stake in EDF to 97.69%, plans to reach full ownership by 8 June via squeeze-out

Santander | EDF has announced that the takeover bid for its shares by the French state has raised the state’s stake in the company to 97.69% of the share capital and that the state will now seek to acquire the minority stakes through a squeeze-out process, which it expects to result in full state ownership by 8 June. In addition, EDF issued a press release yesterday to announce that the…

European economy, In Europe, Markets 24th April 2023

Surprise bounce in services flash PMIs in France and Germany means new dilemma for ECB

Santander Corporate & Investment’s flash services PMIs released this morning will once again be a headache for the ECB, as they show an unexpectedly strong rebound in France at a delicate time of rallies (56.3, 53.5e, 53.9p). But also in Germany (55.7, 53.4e, 53.7p). And at a time when services inflation remains one of the real workhorses as our economists recalled after the release of the final March figure a…

European economy, European politics 10th February 2023

France clashes with Germany and Spain over “pink” hydrogen

Banca March | The lack of support from Germany and Spain for labelling nuclear-derived hydrogen – pink hydrogen – as “green” within the European taxonomy has infuriated the French government, which claimed to have the commitment of both countries. The dispute could call into question the construction of a gas pipeline linking Germany and Spain, as well as delaying European green legislation.

Spanish Politics 19th January 2023

The Hispano-French summit in Barcelona and the schizophrenia of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, the most centralist and Jacobin of European states, will be received today in the most decentralised country on the continent, Spain. The government has chosen Barcelona as the meeting place, the Barcelona mountain of Montjuic, which was the site of the 1929 Universal Exhibition and the 1992 Games, where the pro-independence supporters, led by Oriol Junqueras, await them. The ERC leader pardoned by Sánchez’s government…

European economy, Relevant News Item 23rd August 2022

Business activity in Germany declines for second consecutive month; France activity also drops for first time in 18 months

The downturn in the German private sector economy deepened in August, as business activity fell for the second month running and at a fasterrate in August. This is according to the latest ‘flash’ PMI® data from S&P Global. The deepening downturn was linked by surveyed businesses to a combination of factors, S&P Global noted. These included uncertainty, high inflation and rising interest rates. That said, companies’ expectations registered an uptick…

European economy 13th June 2022

Macron And Melenchon Tie Amid Record Abstention And Everything Will Be Decided In The Second Round

The candidates of Macron’s centrist grouping and the left-wing candidates of Mélenchon’s “New Popular Ecological and Social Union” (NUPES) obtained around 25% of the vote each in the first round of the French legislative elections, which ended with a record abstention rate in France’s recent history. More than half of the electorate (around 53%) stayed away from the polls. All will be decided in the second round next Sunday. The…

European politics 26th April 2022

Thirteen Million French People Are Not The “Far Right”.

Fernando González Urbaneja | Until the French electoral cycle concludes with the June legislative elections, which will define the composition of the new government, it is premature to conclude on the ideological-social-moral map of the French. The right-left axis is of little use when the winning candidate, Enmanuel Macron, flees from this taxonomy, and the losing candidate accumulates 13 million votes (425) that are incompatible with the category of “extreme”….

European politics 25th April 2022

Macron Stays In The Elysée

After a crisis-plagued mandate, centrist Emmanuel Macron on Sunday became the first president to win re-election in France since 2002. With 58.54% of the vote, the candidate of La République en Marche, once again defeated Marine Le Pen, standard-bearer of Rassemblement Nationale, who would have won 41.46% of the vote in Sunday’s election. “From now on, I am no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all,”…

European politics 22nd April 2022

Macron Is Lesser of Evils for Mélenchon Voters

Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | Supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who are thinking of sitting out the second round of the French presidential election ought to take a lesson from Bernie Sanders’ supporters in the United States. When they abstained from the 2016 presidential election, or voted for Green party candidate Jill Stein, they made it possible for Donald Trump to win. Just 1.5 out of 136 million Americans voted for…

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