Macron wants cap on ‘shocking and excessive’ executive pay | France

Emmanuel Macron will push for a cap on excessive executive pay should he be re-elected president after he described as “shocking and excessive” the €19m (£15.7m) pay packet handed to the head of carmaker Stellantis.

Macron, who is campaigning in the run-up to the final vote for the French presidency on 24 April against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, told France Info radio that he was in favour of an EU-wide ceiling for top executives’ pay.

The multimillion-pound payout handed last year to chief executive Carlos Tavares, when French carmaker PSA merged with Italian-US rival Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis, one of the world’s largest carmakers, has emerged as a prominent issue in the election.

Macron and Le Pen are attempting to woo the 7.7 million people who voted in the first round for left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has described the final run-off as “a choice between two evils”.

A poll on France 24 found that 34% would support Macron against 30% for Le Pen. Only 36% of voters were undecided.

“We need to fight at a European level so that remuneration can’t be excessive,” Macron said. “We need to set ceilings and have governance for Europe that make these things acceptable. If this is not done, society will explode at any moment.

“People can’t be facing purchasing power problems … and then see these sorts of sums.”

Beyond his base salary of €2m, Tavares is to receive €7.5m in performance-based pay, €2.4m in retirement contributions and a €1.7m bonus related to the success of the merger. In addition, he will also receive €5.6m-worth of company shares, according to Stellantis.

Tavares, PSA’s chief executive, bought the European operations of General Motors. This gave it control of several plants including the Ellesmere Port factory, Merseyside. The factory saw its last Astra leave production last week in preparation for a shift towards electric cars.

Stellantis was created in 2019 when the boards of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the Peugeot owner, Groupe PSA, approved a €40bn (£35bn) merger to rival Toyota, Daimler, GM and Volkswagen.

“These sorts of sums are astronomic,” Macron said, who was backed by 9.7 million people in the first round against Le Pen’s tally of 8.1 million.

“We need to do what we’ve done with minimum tax rates and the fight against tax evasion. We need to convince our European partners to bring about a reform that will provide a framework for executive pay.”

Earlier this week, French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal characterised Tavares’ renumeration as “obviously not normal figures”.

Le Pen, who will be facing Macron in the second round of the presidential election, on April 24, has been also drawn into the discussion.

“It’s shocking, but less shocking than for others,” she saidBefore he supported the bonuses as a reward to the merger deal, he was seen supporting them. “For once he obtained good results,” she said.