Former Socialist Secretary of State Christian Eckert denounced Monday, June 18 the will to “liberalize at all costs” of the government. He particularly deplores the risk of seeing “special interests privileged in the face of the general interest” in the project to privatize the Française des Jeux ( FDJ ).

“The general interest, that’s what we must have in mind,” he argued on Europe 1, denouncing a “desire to liberalize at all costs too important” from the current power. “The risk with the privatization of a society like the FDJ, I say the risk, I do not say the will yet is that there are special interests that are privileged in relation to the general interest” , he said, adding that “we have sometimes (in the past, Editor’s Note) assisted in the placement of a certain number of financial products to those who live on them”.

“So I remain cautious,” added the former Secretary of State Budget Francois Hollande, saying he has not yet seen the detail of the text. He also wondered about the reasons and the objective of such privatizations: “Strategic companies, which work well, like ADP, like the FDJ, who are beneficiaries, I do not see in the name of what and for what purpose we could give them up to private interests, “he said.

If it is “supposedly to make a fund to invest in other areas”, there are already “full” funds of this type, attached to the Public Investment Bank (Bpi) or the Caisse des dépôts and consignations, he noted. “And even if it would take money, today it is not expensive.”

Faced with the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who felt that “the state is not intended to run competitive companies”, Christian Eckert considers the argument “completely off the plate”: “the French Games is not very subject to competition in France, it has on a number of points of a monopoly, “he notes. As for ADP, it operates in a “competitive world” but “it is a company that works well”.

Its privatization also poses other problems: ADP is “owner of hundreds of hectares in Ile-de-France, the stake of this manna, of what could become a manna in case of change of destination of land, is something that must also be watched very closely. ”

Finally, he underlines that the FDJ “games are not a commodity like the others”, evoking the risks of addiction and money laundering for which “it is up to the state to regulate, and the best way to regulate, it is to be owner “.