Solvay factory "dangerous": the Minister of Economy questioned by the CGT Chimie

"The path to green reindustrialization that we want for France cannot involve the use of dangerous products, not only for users, but first and foremost for the employees of your department," Antoine Armand declared in the National Assembly, responding to a question on the future of the 68 employees of this site.

A multinational present in around sixty countries, Solvay bought its Salindres factory from Rhodia in 2011.

The site is one of five in France to produce per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or "PFAS", also known as eternal pollutants because of their persistent nature in the environment.

"With such statements, will you endorse the disappearance of petrochemicals on French soil, which is nevertheless essential to our industrial sovereignty and the production of basic chemical products?" asks Serge Allegre, general secretary of the Fnic-CGT in a letter addressed to the minister, while the sector fears 15.000 job losses in France.

"How do you plan to implement a green reindustrialization strategy without using products that are potentially dangerous for humans or the environment?" he continues.

The unionist suggests to the minister that the Salindres site should be made into "a large industrial PFAS decontamination laboratory, financed by the polluter pays logic".

"What will not be produced on our territory, while the needs are present, will be produced in other countries where environmental standards are not the primary concerns," concludes the unionist.