These are technically very advanced subjects, but whose impacts are major and concrete in the daily life of the French. Enough to make them eminently political subjects.
Who hasn’t been marked if not closely touched by the shortage of paracetamol or anesthetic products necessary for resuscitation during the Covid crisis? And what about shortages this winter of common like amoxicillin ? Who does not wonder about the effects of artificial intelligence or would have missed out on the irruption of ChatGPT in everyday life ? And if the plane is not part of everyone’s daily life, who does not wonder about its effects on the climate?
A whole series of announcements
These are all questions that Emmanuel Macron connects by a common thread, that of industrial sovereignty , which he wants to highlight in the coming days. Sovereignty is a theme he claims to have raised from his 2017 campaign, both in France and at European level. The emphasis was particularly placed with the Covid crisis and then the war in Ukraine which showed, sometimes to the great amazement of the French, how dependent the country could be in a whole series of areas.
“The question is how France can be able to produce these goods, these technologies or these services on its soil and more broadly on European soil”, summarizes the Elysée.
The objective of these trips is both to take stock of the policies and resources already committed, but also to accelerate with a whole series of announcements. They also aim, while the executive now sees the pension crisis behind him, to set a course by trying to make concrete an important part of Emmanuel Macron’s economic policy. This may seem abstract to many, and at first glance far from their daily concerns.
This Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron, visiting Champagne (Ardèche) in the laboratory of the pharmaceutical company Aguettant, specializing among other things in injectable products in anesthesia and intensive care, will address health sovereignty and therefore the very strong dependence of the industry. pharmaceutical and drug shortages.
This, while 60 to 80% of the productions are carried out abroad, in particular in China and that the ruptures of supply chains have been, underlines the Elysée, multiplied by 20 in ten years. The stock-outs highlighted by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), have “doubled, including between 2021 and 2022”, continues the Elysée.
Ongoing relocation
In line with the policy undertaken with the relocation during the production of paracetamol by Seqens in Isère , the Head of State seeks to go further and must make announcements in this direction. In particular, he must reveal the list of around 300 considered essential for the health of the French and on which the strategy of relocating production will be based.
On Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron will focus on the subject of technological sovereignty, in particular around artificial intelligence, by visiting the Vivatech show, co-organized by the Les Echos-Le Parisien group. The opportunity here too, promises the Elysée, to make a number of announcements on its policy in terms of artificial intelligence, innovation and regulation that France seeks to promote, support for players in the sector and innovation funding.
Finally, it is on the occasion of the Paris Air Show, the international aeronautics and space show, that the President of the Republic will sign the third stage of this series of trips to talk about the decarbonization of planes and helicopters. With, always, in the case of a long-term policy such as reindustrialisation, the risk of a gap between the announcements and the results.