PARIS (Reuters) -Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk will meet French President Emmanuel Macron and other political leaders on Monday at a business conference close to Paris, the Elysee Palace said, confirming earlier media reports.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla who bought social network Twitter in a $44 billion deal last year, will meet Macron at the palace before attending lunch with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, the finance ministry told Reuters.
Musk will also visit the sixth edition of the annual “Choose France” summit in Versailles, aimed at boosting international investment in France.
Le Maire told BFM TV that the talks between the government and Musk would cover several topics, including electric cars.
Asked by BFM TV if any announcement was likely, Le Maire said “all investments that are being made today are the result of months or even years of negotiations.”
Facing pressure over a widely unpopular proposal to raise the French retirement age – which weighed on Macron’s approval ratings – the president has been seeking to win back momentum by championing a push towards the green industry sector.
Last week, France beat competition from Germany and the Netherlands for ProLogium’s first overseas car battery plant, thanks to heavy government lobbying, deal sweeteners and competitive power prices, executives from the Taiwanese company said.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Michel Rose and Blandine Henault; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Bernadette Baum)
