Question 13301 — space and space policy

Summary

Mr. Hadrien Clouet alerts the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Space to the Bromo project, which is harmful to the entire French satellite industry and dangerous for the sovereignty of the country. France needs a satellite industry. In daily life, to geolocate in the car, watch television, follow a telemedicine consultation, requires a satellite telecommunications network. But also in the face of humanity's major challenges such as climate change, with a view to measuring greenhouse gases, monitoring water levels, and anticipating major weather phenomena. If we want to remain independent, we need a sovereign industry. However, the national space strategy unveiled on November 12, 2025 by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron abandons all management of the sector to private interests. On the In terms of credits, the financial effort is very limited: 10.2 billion euros in six years, while Germany has a budget three times greater! This strategy was presented in Toulouse during the inauguration of the Space Command, demonstrating that the President of the Republic only associates space with its military component, without thinking about technological or ecological issues. Worse still, it expressly provided for a “ new distribution of skills and space technologies”, “between France, Germany and Italy”. As the French are the only ones capable of intervening at each level of the production chain, any redistribution of skills will be to the detriment of France. And in doing so, it deprives the country of the most dynamic areas of cooperation, outside the European continent: Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia... So many countries are developing satellite programs with which France would be inspired to cooperate, in order to tear them away from American influence and its imperialist objectives. As soon as the State is absent, companies in the sector prioritize their profit rates rather than the usefulness of their activity. And the latest expression of this financial orientation harmful to national interests is the Bromo project, initiated in 2023, and advised by Goldman Sachs as well as Bank of America. This project aims to unify three aerospace leaders: Airbus Defense and Space (Franco-Spanish-German), Thales Alenia Space (Franco-Italian) and Leonardo (Italian - but dependent on American orders) around a joint company. The schedule provides for information meetings and mandated expert assessments until October 2026, before signing of a final agreement. The official launch of the Bromo joint venture would take place in the first half of 2027. Presented as the path towards the establishment of a “leading European space player”, this hasty project in reality represents a threat for jobs in the Toulouse region, for the industrial coherence of the territories and for the maintenance of know-how in France. In short, it represents a dangerous gas plant. In anticipation, the companies concerned have already initiated job cuts: 1,000 at Thales Alenia Space, 2,500 at Airbus Defense and Space. The social status of employees transferred to Bromo will only be maintained for 15 months... or even less, if a specific company agreement is adopted. Likewise, different sectors are being outsourced, such as the production of space batteries heading to Spain. All this despite progress turnover of 11% on the Airbus Defense and Space side and 12% on the Thales Alenia Space side, since the satellite market is continually expanding in the geo segment in which they are specialists. Thus, companies in the sector favor the logic of immediate income over a logic of long-term planning. Rather than taking into account production capacities to deduce objectives, they attempt to maintain fixed objectives while reducing their capacities to improve their operating margins. The Bromo project illustrates this, since it is based on a major social plan, justified by the closure of infrastructures and laboratories which would be duplicated. Production lines, testing facilities, clean rooms, research areas will be liquidated to increase the operational margin at constant production capacities. The means of research and development will therefore decline! Another path is possible rather than merging resources: distributing certain activities to specialize each company, pooling research laboratories to make leaps in innovation and sharing patents. This model would allow the State, shareholder of these three companies, to use public money for the development of this industry rather than endorsing the shrinkage, because all this restructuring takes place with public funds. In two of these companies there are directors appointed by the Government, but to whom the State is prohibited from giving instructions, controlling votes or requesting non-public information, under absurd governance rules. Despite having 11% of the capital, the State has rendered itself powerless. Thus, contrary to initial announcements, the Bromo entity does not will not compete with Starlink of the fascist billionaire Mr. Musk, because it is built orthogonally. Where Starlink represents vertical integration of the entire sector (from launch to internet services through assembly), Bromo represents horizontal integration (between infrastructure manufacturers of the same level). It breaks with the requirements of a satellite industry in the 21st century: controlling the chain global infrastructure-networks-services. This grouping is all the more absurd as several satellite constellations are currently deployed or in the process of being deployed: OneWeb (French) IRIS2 (European, which already includes Airbus Defense and Space as well as Thales Alenia Space), IRIDIUM (American), O3b (Luxembourg-American), Telesat LightSpeed ​​(Canadian), Qianfan or Guowang (Chinese). The market is therefore reaching saturation. In Furthermore, Bromo will harm French sovereignty. Today, the European market is divided between two major competing French players: Airbus Defense and Space and Thales Alenia Space. If the two are brought together in a single actor, the European Commission will encourage the arrival of a new external competitor - which will not be French. The most open danger concerns the German OHB, kept (rightly) out of the project, but likely to buy assets at the time of the merger, with the help of German public orders. But Chinese or American players could fill the vacant place. Regrouping therefore paradoxically implies a loss of market and a national weakening. A fortiori in a satellite market in the process of being militarized, and therefore reserved for national institutional players, creating a world champion has little sense. Who imagines the United States buying outside the United States, or China buying outside China? Only Europe is contributing to its own weakening! All of this restructuring is taking place with public funds, in two companies where directors appointed by the Government sit. But at the end of the paralyzing governance rules, the State is prohibited from giving them instructions, controlling their votes or asking them for information. non-public. Such rules prevent the Government from intervening in strategic orientations, even though it holds 11% of the capital. Also, the MP asks him when the Government will make strategic appointments, with strict instructions, with a view to resuming its responsibility as an institutional shareholder. But above all, the Bromo project threatens to completely privatize the sector. There is no guarantee that the Public administrators will always be present on the board of directors. Thus, the subsidiary of a subsidiary makes it possible to eliminate any representative of the State by living on public funds. It could thus completely disconnect itself from issues of national sovereignty and France's objectives in terms of defense, telecommunications or research. Taking this path means organizing the decline of the French aerospace sector and its dismantling into capital funds. Also, he asks him how he intends to orchestrate the methodical bifurcation of the sector, towards a public planning policy. To do this, will he use his presence on the boards of directors via strategic appointments, accompanied by strict instructions, to assume his responsibility as a reference shareholder? Will it thus block ongoing relocations, for example on space batteries? Will he nationalize the space subsidiaries of Airbus and Thales as well as ArianeGroup to form a public satellite hub? Such a center would control each segment (research, development of land infrastructure, assembly, equipment, firing, operation, service provision) into a coherent whole, which would follow national interests. It represents the basis of a peaceful space strategy, directed towards demilitarization and depollution of space, which prevents the private appropriation of resources and celestial bodies, placing France at the front line of international law. To do this, will a debate be organized in Parliament on the French space strategy? He asks him if, in order to allow these issues to take precedence over shareholder income, he will oppose the Bromo project.

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