€200,000 public subsidy to the tobacco industry?

On February 14, 2020, the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire should decide on public funding to support the tobacco industry for a value of 200,000 Euros. This public funding would be granted to the Spay factory in Sarthe, apartment in LTR. The purpose of the funding would be to “ to find new business opportunities" and "support the company that must face the decline of the tobacco market in the world". LTR Industrie, a subsidiary of the American paper group Schweitzer-Mauduit, specializes in the reconstitution of tobacco by-products in the form of leaves then used to manufacture new blends. Hiding behind the argument that tobacco products may be less dangerous, the Spay company claims to be launching new types of cigarettes, which it claims are less harmful. Such public funding has provoked strong reactions, including within the local community. The opposition group, the Socialist, Ecologist, Radical and Republican group (SERR) has officially indicated that it will oppose the adoption of this resolution this Friday, February 14 and will ask the majority to renounce it. This would come at a time when the State has already funded this cigarette manufacturer to the tune of 1.6 million Euros. In the context of implementing a national strategy to reduce tobacco consumption, such a decision causes incomprehension, particularly within civil society. It goes completely against the international commitments made by France within the framework of the WHO treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which provides in particular that no preferential treatment be granted to the tobacco industry. Such a position of principle results from the recognition of the irreconcilable interests between the interests of this industry and those of the general interest. Indeed, in addition to the major health damage caused by tobacco consumption, this industry also generates major financial, social and environmental costs for a country like France. Continuing to support a deadly industry, which costs money to the public authorities and citizens and which worsens the situation of the most deprived, has no tenable justification. ©Tobacco Free Generation

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