Like former European Commissioner and VVD star Neelie Kroes, French President Emmanuel Macron – at the time economy minister – has gone to great lengths to support Uber’s lobbying campaign. “The call was very personal,” says France correspondent Evelyn Belsma.
“He doesn’t seem to have done anything against the rules at this point. Like Kroes. But Macron actively tried to facilitate Uber. France was the first country that Uber tried to set foot outside the United States. That was in 2014, when Macron was a minister, says Bilsma.” .
But what is even more shocking, she says, is that the connection between Macron and Uber was very personal. “He was sent a text when something went wrong. There was also a lot of fraud investigation inside Uber at the time. During a raid and a property search, a text was sent to Macron. Incidentally, he didn’t respond to that at the time. .
Startups
According to Biglsma, as a minister, Macron was often involved in start-ups at that time. “He wanted to break the monopoly of taxi drivers and give the startup Uber a chance. But he did not consider the consequences for drivers who are not working, but they work in disguised jobs without further protection. At least, it seems that he did not think about those consequences. If that happened, It would be really unacceptable.”
Parliamentary investigation
Bilsma continues: ‘There is a lot of media interest in this case. But it’s quite technical, the whole story and all the messages. It is also about the nuances. There is a communist deputy asked to form an investigation committee. But they will not be able to achieve this only with the extreme left-wing bloc. You really need to get support for that. I suspect that this support does not exist at the moment.
Read also | ‘Former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes secretly lobbied for Uber’
