Relations between Patrick Pouyanné and the government still appear tense. If the CEO of Totalenergies assures that his ties with the executive are “generally” appeased, he admits in an interview with Sunday newspaper that “it was difficult during the episode of the refinery strikes last fall.” “But we managed to find a majority agreement with the unions,” he adds.
The head of the oil group often singled out for its environmental impact also seems to regret the government’s reaction to the riots at the Totalenergies general assembly that environmentalists tried to block in late May:
If he does not quote it openly, Patrick Pouyanné refers here to the statements by Elisabeth Borne who had estimated after this episode that the militants were “in their alert role”. For her part, the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, had denounced the actions “that generate disorder” but called for distinguishing, on the merits, “the question that these actions raise and that is a very good question”.
“The temptation to point us out as scapegoats persists”
Patrick Pouyanné, who “knew two Presidents of the Republic” as CEO of Totalenergies, affirms that the latter see in his group “the spearhead side of the ‘maison’ France internationally, and realize that the responsible for many countries that welcome us speak well of us”.
But “when they return to France, despite everything, the temptation to point us out as scapegoats persists,” he laments, while saying he is “proud” that his group “is French.”
Source: BFM TV
