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…
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…
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.
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…
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”….
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,”…
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…
Scope Ratings ( Thomas Gillet) | The European Commission has started consultations on a draft text for labelling nuclear as a ‘green’ energy source under the EU’s taxonomy for environmentally sustainable activities. If the proposal is approved by the European Parliament and the Council, it would have positive credit implications for France (AA/Stable) given the importance of nuclear in the country’s power mix, climate plan and energy independence. The EU…
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | French Republicans have thrown away their two best chances of denying Emmanuel Macron a second term. Party members eliminated Michel Barnier and Xavier Bertrand from the center-right’s presidential primary on Thursday, giving the men 24 and 22 percent support, respectively. The more right-wing Éric Ciotti and Valérie Pécresse qualified for the runoff on Saturday. Neither polls well against the president. Besting Macron Bertrand, the conservative…
José Alves (Capital Madrid) | France is experiencing a historic moment in its rail industry: the beginning of the end of the national public service monopoly for passenger transport. Since the nationalisation of the network (1937) this has been in the hands of the state-owned SNCF. The government had announced this, as required by the EU, but it will be another three and a half years before the decision taken…