La France Insoumise Chief and Presidential candidate for 2022 election Jean-Luc Mélenchon visits distressed MBF Aluminium Foundry

On 10th June 2021, the Chief of La France Insoumise and Presidential candidate for the 2022 French election visited the distressed MBF Aluminium Foundry in Saint-Claude, Jura, where 280 jobs are at stake towards the liquidation of the organisation.

The leader of the political party toured the foundry campus and looked at the machines of this foundry which manufactures aluminium components for the automotive industry; however, the plant is threatened with closure. The auto giants Stellantis and Renault are the primary customers, but order books have declined over the months, with part of the manufacturers' production now taking place in Spain.

Jean- Luc Mélenchon stated: “We have a factory, an aluminium foundry, there are only four in France. They know how to make parts which are essential for certain automobile productions or others which could be used in the future for the works of the ecological bifurcation to manufacture trains, and, inexplicably, we do not understand why we destroy a production tool.”

The party chief believes: “The State should have imposed conditions on manufacturers. A State which gives 5 billion euros to the automotive industry when only 17% of the cars you buy are produced in France could at minimum say, I give you this money on the condition that you honour your order books on your subcontractors.”

The Dijon commercial court is due to hold a new hearing on June 15 on the fate of MBF. A unique and discreet private buyer came to know at the end of May. The fate of MBF remains uncertain, the foundry has become the symbolic place of the fight for the economy and employment where candidates for regional and departmental elections pass one by one.