Emmanuel Macron is preparing to leave the international stage and return to domestic issues. The French president, whose agenda has recently been almost exclusively centered on international issues like the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the war in Ukraine, intends to devote most of his time during the week of November 20 to 24 to France's economy.

In the spring, the president had similarly drawn attention to economic affairs, with a speech on May 11 on reindustrializing the country, and a visit the following day to Dunkirk in the so-called Battery Valley, where he made official the creation of a "gigafactory" by the Taiwanese group ProLogium. Three days later, he held the Choose France summit in Versailles, hoping to attract foreign investors.

Now, six months after that, Macron intends to embody a new "economic sequence," in the words of the Elysée Palace, based on a three-pronged strategy of "supporting businesses, decarbonization and reindustrialization."

On Tuesday, November 21, Macron will present an export-aid program for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and intermediate-sized enterprises). Around a hundred companies will be invited to the Elysée. The stakes are high, at a time when France's trade balance, which suffered from a significant €54 billion trade deficit in the first half of the year, "remains problematic," according to the Elysée. France has not had a trade surplus in goods since 2002.

"We're determined to fight this battle and help SMEs and intermediate-sized enterprises be stronger when it comes to exporting," said the Elysée. The economic fabric of small businesses remains underdeveloped in France, where it hinges more on large industrial groups and where SMEs and intermediate-sized enterprises remain far less export-oriented than their European neighbors. France's approximately 146,000 SMEs account for just 2% of the country's total value of exports, compared with 9% for Germany's 3.5 million SMEs and 54% in Italy (the European record, with 4.4 million companies).

The government's plan is not so much based on financial aid as on organizational support. The state wants to facilitate access to its services for SMEs and intermediate-sized enterprises through a one-stop shop while offering them greater representation in official delegations abroad. "We want to identify high-growth SMEs and intermediate-sized enterprises in all sectors of the economy and help them take a decisive leap forward in terms of jobs and investment," said the Elysée.

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