France: Finance Minister May Seize Major Companies Amid Market Mayhem

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said his government is ready to use all measures to offer support to major companies suffering during the financial market turmoil, including nationalization if such necessity arises. French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a strict 15-day lockdown across the entire country, requiring people to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus. He said that police will patrol the streets and issuing fines for people without a written declaration justifying their reasons for being out. -GEG

This comes amid continuing turmoil on global financial markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The French government is ready to use all measures to offer support to major companies suffering during the financial market turmoil, including nationalisation if such necessity arises, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.

“I won’t hesitate to use all means available to protect big French companies,” Le Maire said on a conference call with journalists, as quoted by Reuters.

“That can be done by recapitalisation, that can be done by taking a stake, I can even use the term nationalisation if necessary,” Le Maire added, as quoted by the agency.

France has also promised a package of measures worth some €45bn to help companies and employees withstand the pandemic-linked storm, the minister said, as quoted by the Financial Times. This package would include payments to temporarily redundant workers and postponed tax and social security bills. The aid measures also include €300bn of state guarantees for bank loans to businesses and €1tn of such guarantees from European institutions, Le Maire said, as cited by the paper.

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Additional source:

https://www.france24.com/en/20200317-france-s-coronavirus-lockdown-what-you-can-and-can-t-do