The president of the Medef (French employers' association) defends aid to businesses before a Senate committee

Mr. Martin was questioned by the Commission of Inquiry into the use of public aid to large companies, launched at the beginning of February by the communist group CRCE-K.

"We cannot disconnect the supply-side policy" implemented since the mid-2010s, of which this aid is a part, "from France's rather satisfactory performance since it was implemented," Mr. Martin maintained.

Citing recent cuts in apprenticeship subsidies, he mentioned a decline of "20 to 30%" in apprenticeship contracts since the beginning of the year.

This aid, which he would readily rename "compensations", "must be assessed in the light of a competitive context which is becoming more difficult," he argued.

Questioned, notably by rapporteur Fabien Gay, on the provision of aid to companies that pay large dividends to their shareholders, Mr. Martin retorted that "the Paris stock market only represents 3,5% of global stock market capitalization," and that "to attract shareholders you need a return: the average return on equity investments in France is 3%, which is not exaggerated," according to him.

Regarding another controversial practice, share buybacks, Mr. Martin noted that companies generally prefer to invest, but "there are circumstances where the company must maintain its share price."

"Introducing morality into this type of behavior can go a long way," he warned.

In his own unlisted company in Ain, Martin Belaysoud (distribution to professionals), it was necessary to proceed with "share buybacks through capital reductions," he revealed, due to a "dispute that became legal" with "a family shareholder who put pressure on the others to sell the company."

For him, it was not "a wildly capitalist maneuver," something Mr. Gay agreed.

He also stressed the "urgent need to review the financing of social protection", in particular to "revalue net salaries".

For him, three schemes "clearly fall under the responsibility of businesses and employees: unemployment, retirement, and workplace accidents and illnesses." But, "without completely ignoring them," their contribution to family and health should be reduced, he argued.