Nicolas Sarkozy has underlined his determination to block foreign takeovers of strategic French companies by fiercely condemning last year’s acquisition of Arcelor, Europe’s biggest steel group, by Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian billionaire, as a “waste”.
The presidential frontrunner voiced a sharp protectionist twist to his industrial policy at a campaign rally in Lille on Wednesday night. His comments are likely to shock many of his admirers in the US and UK, who see him as France’s best hope for reform.
Blaming the euro for low wages, promising to reintroduce “community preference” in the European Union and to combat “social, monetary and ecological dumping”, Mr Sarkozy launched an attack on “free trade”, which he called a “policy of naivety”.
“Look at the waste of Arcelor, which we sold off on the cheap because we believed that the steel industry was history. They got it wrong. They lied,” said Mr Sarkozy to a cheering crowd at Lille’s Palais des Congrès. “If I am president, then France will have a real industrial policy.”
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