It’s a rivalry that has lasted for a lot of centuries.
The rivalry between France and England is famous.
The 2 nations shared the world till the Nice Conflict. Now, they’re two former nice powers relegated to the rank of stooges of america and China.
However for historic causes, their rivalry continues and is even intense within the enterprise world, the place the 2 nations typically compete to lure investments by multinationals. London tends to level to versatile labor legal guidelines, a good tax code and fewer crimson tape to draw overseas traders. The opposite robust argument of England is the language. English is taken into account the language of enterprise.
For its half, Paris has not given up. The nation boasts the standard of life, its infrastructures, its elite faculties, that are a breeding floor for expertise, and its very aggressive energy costs. And for some years, successive governments have tried to cut back the ability of the unions and lighten the executive machine with a purpose to neutralize sure benefits of London, as a result of many are the multinationals that are scared away by the photographs of big protests within the streets of huge cities.
Paris vs. London
Not too long ago, pictures of violent demonstrations in opposition to pension reform have gone all over the world, overshadowing President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda to draw overseas companies. Macron needs to make France the tech hub — i.e. the capital of synthetic intelligence and cryptocurrencies — and the nerve middle of the event of batteries supposed for electrical autos in Europe.
Whereas this rivalry continues, essentially the most highly effective CEO on this planet has simply chosen between the 2 nations. Elon Musk, the richest man on this planet in keeping with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and serial entrepreneur, opted for France. The Techno King introduced his alternative after a Twitter consumer posted a message evaluating France to England. Musk reacted.
“Superb publish,” posted on June 3 Patrick Collison, the billionaire CEO of fintech Stripe. “(Notably appreciated this comparative evaluation of France and the UK.)”
Collison outlined the next: “Ben Southwood has satisfied me that France is wealthy as a result of it will get the massive issues mainly proper. Housing provide there may be freer: the general geographic extent of Paris’s metropolitan space roughly tripled between 1945 and right this moment, whereas London’s has grown just a few p.c.”
The comparability between the 2 nations continued.
“Infrastructure is healthier: 29 French cities have trams, versus 11 right here (seemingly one cause its second-tier cities are far more productive than Britain’s). It has almost 12,000km of motorways versus round 4,000km right here – and French motorways are typically smoother and higher saved (and three quarters are tolled, making congestion a lot much less of an issue).”
Lastly: “Childcare is cheaper: about half the value per thirty days, partially as a result of they require half the workers. Power is extra plentiful, as proven above. As a result of it will get these large 4 issues proper, it may afford to get plenty of different issues mistaken.”
‘Vive La France’
These arguments appear to have satisfied Musk to the purpose that he reacted enthusiastically.
“Vive la France!” the billionaire proclaimed, surrounding his message with the French flag on the left and on the best.
“+1,” Macron reacted to Musk’s alternative.
The billionaire’s alternative is a large present to Macron, who’s making an attempt to relaunch his second time period. Seeing essentially the most influential CEO on this planet praising France on Twitter, thought of the city sq. of our instances, is robust assist for the French president’s efforts to point out his people who he can persuade overseas traders to spend money on the nation.
Additionally it is the fruit of a French marketing campaign aimed toward courting Musk.
Final month, the CEO of the electrical automobile producer was the star visitor at a summit organized by France — “Select France” — which introduced collectively bosses of overseas multinationals on the Palace of Versailles. Macron rolled out the crimson carpet to Musk, whom he personally obtained on the Élysée Palace in Paris, earlier than the opening of the summit. The 2 leaders additionally had dinner collectively.
“With @ElonMusk, we talked in regards to the attractiveness of France and the numerous progress within the electrical automobile and vitality sectors. We additionally talked about digital regulation. Now we have a lot to do collectively. See you this afternoon on the #ChooseFrance Summit!” Macron posted after the assembly.
“It was an honor to satisfy!” Musk commented.
No funding announcement has but been made, however Economic system and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stated that “there are negotiations happening.”
