PARIS — Henri Proglio has pulled out of a planned appointment as chairman of defense electronics company Thales, in response to the economy minister's concerns over his links to the Russian nuclear industry, afternoon daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.
A Thales shareholders meeting had been called for Wednesday May 13 ((eds: correct)) to appoint Proglio as non-executive chairman, but he has withdrawn as he objected to "a campaign" by the economy minister against him.
"I have had enough of the suspicion, the humiliation," Proglio said in an interview with Le Monde. "Stop taking me for a puppet, a spy, a greedy man, a traitor."
Thales was not immediately available for comment.
Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron had reproached Proglio for declining to give up advisory activities with Rosatom, a Russian nuclear energy concern, the paper reported. Proglio sits on the management board of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC and Fennovoima, two companies in which Rosatom is the main shareholder, the report said. The economy minister sees the That Russian connection is seen by the economy minister as a conflict of interest in view of Thales's military technology and business.
Proglio said there were political motives are behind the pressure on his Russian connection.
"Behind this whole story is an attempt to bring down a man for political purposes," Proglion said. "Since the previous president [Nicolas Sarkozy] appointed me at the head of EDF, I am called a Sarkozy man. I defy anyone to put a political label on me, I am above all a businessman."
"I have not fueled the campaign [against Proglio], I respect the man, for the man who was the head of [environmental services company] Veolia and EDF," Macron said, according to an Agence France-Presse report. "This is a problem of ethics and conflict of interest."
That the honorary chairman of EDF and the future head of Thales should be paid, even indirectly, by the group running which runs Russia's civil and military nuclear industry is, at, the very least, astonishing, said an economy ministry official, Le Monde reported.
French President François Hollande, Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian have has each spoken in favor of Proglio's appointment to Thales, Le Monde reported Proglio as saying. Despite that support, Proglio said, the Economy Ministry has fueled a campaign against him over the past few weeks.
A lawyer acting for Proglio has written to the Economy Ministry and the Elysée Palace pointing out that the two Russian companies were set up to work on nuclear power projects in Finland and Turkey, and that posed no threat to Thales, Reuters reported.
Proglio is the former chairman of electricity utility giant EDF, or Electricité de France. The government effectively forced Proglio out of state-owned EDF and moved in Jean-Bernard Levy to take up the top job. Levy was the previous chairman and chief executive of Thales.
In December, Thales appointed Proglio as chairman and Patrice Caine and as chief executive, with a shareholders meeting to formally adopt those appointments.
The government holds 26.39 percent of Thales, Dassault Aviation 25.3 percent.
Email: ptran@defensenews.com
