The National Rally Makes Its Move in France's Major Ports
Just over a year ahead of the presidential election, the decline of French ports in the face of European competition is attracting the attention of the Rassemblement National (National Rally). Its foray into this very discreet world, on the occasion of an evaluation mission from the Palais Bourbon initiated by MP Matthias Renault, is being watched with suspicion.
While the Cour des comptes (Court of Auditors) is conducting a series of reviews of port establishments and the Élysée is putting the finishing touches on the merger of the port of Marseille with the Rhône-Saône river ports, the Rassemblement National (RN) has been taking an interest in the maritime and river transport sector for the past two months. A subject it still knows little about, but which must feed into its presidential programme with measures aimed at improving the performance of the port logistics chain.
The party chaired by Jordan Bardella is laying the groundwork through MP Matthias Renault. This former financial magistrate pushed for the creation of an evaluation mission on the competitiveness of French ports, within the restricted format of the work of the Committee for Evaluation and Control of Public Policies (CEC) of the National Assembly. The RN MP for the Somme is leading this task alongside Horizons MP for Le Havre, Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, who was chosen to counter him politically and to defend the record of the outgoing mayor and presidential candidate Édouard Philippe. The work is centralised, carried out by the two co-rapporteurs who alone conduct all the hearings.
Neither of them are specialists in the sector — they are both discovering the issues as they go. One certainty: this "CEC" provides a good way to get a foot in the door and become known among the companies in the port chain, from major shipping lines (MSC, CMA CGM) to stevedores, through logistics firms Geodis, Ceva Logistics (a CMA CGM subsidiary), shippers and their respective professional organisations.
Under the Watchful Eye of Édouard Philippe
Launched at the end of 2025, the evaluation mission will result in the publication of a report with a series of proposals at the beginning of summer. After a visit to Le Havre on 12 January, the two MPs plan to travel to Marseille and Dunkirk, while second-tier ports such as La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Saint-Nazaire will only be the subject of a written questionnaire. A final visit is scheduled to Rotterdam, the European Union's top port with approximately 14 million containers handled annually. The status of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, a public limited company owned by the city (70%) and the Dutch state (30%), provides food for thought regarding the possibility of transferring ownership of certain second-tier French ports to local authorities.
The arrival of the far-right party in this discreet world is causing significant apprehension, both among the senior civil servants heading port establishments — represented by the Union des ports de France (UPF) — and among certain political figures. Close to Édouard Philippe, Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo is working to highlight the record of the former prime minister, who was behind the creation of Haropa Port, the Epic born from the merger of the three Seine ports: Paris, Rouen and Le Havre. A sign of the close ties between politics and the port sector: an assistant to Mayor Édouard Philippe, Antoine Loisel, leads economic, fiscal and European affairs at the Union nationale des industries de la manutention (Unim) in French ports.
Drawing on the presentation given at the hearing on 12 January by Haropa's CEO Benoît Rochet and by the deputy director in charge of the port of Le Havre, Florent Weyer, the Horizons MP considers the effects of the Haropa reform positive for the dynamism and performance of France's leading port. In her view, the management of the port of Rouen — which is nevertheless the subject of strong criticism from grain traders — is satisfactory. Enough to spare the state's oversight, exercised jointly by Bercy and the Direction générale des infrastructures de transports et de mobilités (DGITM) at the transport ministry.
MSC's Promise on Stand-by
However, the Court of Auditors' audit of Haropa, which will come after the damning reports on Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and Dunkirk, may contradict the assessment of the Horizons co-rapporteur. At Le Havre, traffic has stagnated at around 3.1 million containers per year and the new governance structure has created a fourth layer of management, with rising structural costs. Moreover, the promised one billion euros in investment from shipping line MSC has yet to materialise, against a backdrop of declining global container traffic.
Another sensitive point: social conditions and the granting of benefits to employees under pressure from the CGT port union are eroding the economic model and internal climate. But contrary to the camp — from Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo to senior civil servants, logistics firms and warehouse managers — that sees an opportunistic mission on the part of the RN, others see it as an opportunity to look under the hood, given that criticism of port governance remains muted, either for fear of union retaliation or fear of crossing the state.
It remains to be seen what impact the mission of Matthias Renault and Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo will have on port governance during the presidential campaign. It is unfolding as the governance of the port of Marseille is at stake, where the CGT is already promising a frosty reception for the RN. In the Méditerranée-Rhône-Saône (MeRS) river axis project, the idea is to pool the lands of the port of Marseille with those of the main river ports of the Rhône and the Saône. Following the report by Augustin de Romanet, tasked with working on the issue, Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce the chosen solution in the coming weeks, which in principle will be implemented without requiring legislation.