TheEconomistSeptember 5th 2020 411I
n1946, asFrance emerged from the hor-
rors of war, Charles de Gaulle devised le
Planto rebuild his battered country. Cen-
tred on the theme “Modernisation or Deca-
dence”, the first five-year plan identified
six industries—coal, electricity, steel, tran-
sport, mechanised agriculture and ce-
ment—on which France would construct a
modern economy. “Modernisation”, de-
clared Jean Monnet, the first commission-
er of the Plan (and later co-architect of
European integration), is a “state of mind”.
Indeed in the French mind, the Plan was in
large part to thank for the 30 years of pros-
perity—les trente glorieuses—that followed.
The office of the Plan was not formally
abolished until 2006, but France has not
drawn up a five-year plan for nearly 30
years. A successor body, known as France
Stratégie, scarcely mentioned the word
Plan at all. From the mid-1980s, the forces
of liberalisation and globalisation increas-
ingly turned the former institution and its
focus on planning into a quaint historicalrelic. Until now.
On September 3rd, as The Economist
went to press, the French government was
set to announce the resurrection of the
mighty Plan. The first commissioner of the
revived bureaucratic body will be François
Bayrou. A veteran centrist, he is the leader
of MoDem, a party that is crucial to Presi-
dent Emmanuel Macron’s governing ma-
jority in parliament. Mr Bayrou will not
join the government, but will report to it.
State planning and the desire for auton-
omy in strategic industries have a long his-
tory in France, reaching back to Jean-Bap-tiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s finance minister.
In more recent times, as liberal orthodoxy
prevailed globally, it became the preserve
of diehard French dirigistes, often to the
disapproval of their German friends. The
covid-19 pandemic, however, is now shift-
ing the debate well beyond France. Short-
ages of masks have called into question the
wisdom of relying on global supply chains.
Overwhelmed hospitals have strengthened
the case for investment in public health.
Home-working and a fear of crowds have
reset the discussion about the geography
and greening of the city, just as border clo-
sures have thrown the travel, tourism and
aerospace industries into disarray.
The point of resurrecting the Plan, says
Mr Macron, is “to rediscover the sense of
the long-term” and make sure that govern-
ment is not only about crisis management.
To the relief of many, five-year plans will
not make a comeback. But Mr Bayrou will
set out how France should prepare for
2030: how to move towards a lower-carbon
economy, invest in the right skills for to-
morrow’s world of work and strengthen lo-
cal industries across the country.
“The French Plan was never a Soviet-
style plan,” says Jean Pisani-Ferry, an econ-
omist and former head of France Stratégie,
who cautions against caricature. In its ear-
ly guise, the Plan was indeed about public
investment in roads, railways, electricity
and telecoms. But it also relied heavily onFranceThe man with le Plan
PARIS
President Emmanuel Macron revives a post-war institution for a post-covid eraEurope
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