The French state welcomes themerger hypothesis between Renault, of which he is the majority shareholder with 15%, e fca, however it asks for some guarantees. Three, to be exact. To list them is the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.
"I believe that the merger project between Renault and Fiat is a great opportunity for Renault and a great opportunity for the European car industry," said the minister in an interview with radio station Rtl, underlining however that France will be " very attentive" to the operation and will ask "guarantees on the occupation and maintenance of industrial sites in France".
The second stake provides that “the operation is done within the framework of the alliance between Renault and Nissan”, added Le Maire.
The third point concerns guarantees on governance. In this respect, it seems that John Elkann could become president of the new company, with Jean-Dominique Senard, current CEO of Renault, who would maintain the same role, and Michael Manley general manager.
The French minister also said the deal would be important in addressing the challenges facing the automotive industry, such as the use of electric batteries and the development of autonomous driving. These challenges, underlined Le Maire, require "billions of investments and therefore a consolidation of the car industry".
After all, to deal with these new businesses, some partnerships have already been created (or are about to be created) between some of the main automotive giants. BMW and Daimler, for example, have put aside their historic rivalry to join forces on the creation of a self-driving car, while Volkswagen is negotiating a possible agreement with Ford to work together in the electric car and autonomous driving.
In the morning, one of the two Italian deputy prime ministers also expressed his opinion on the possible FCA-Renault merger. Curiously, not the head of Economic Development, Luigi di Maio, but the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini: "It seems to me a useful operation for Italy and Europe to have an auto giant - said the Northern League leader in an interview with Rtl 102.5 – If everyone respects their commitments, I hope we go ahead”.
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