Near Strasbourg, De Dietrich's social plan is compounded by political tensions surrounding the RN MP

The sun announces noon. In front of the BDR Thermea factory in Mertzwiller (Bas-Rhin), 50 kilometers from Strasbourg, employees go in small groups to take their break. There are those who sit on benches in front of the parking lot to eat lunch in the shade of a few trees. And those who head to the cafeteria, a long, one-story rectangle attached to the site. Faces are closed, gazes averted. There's no desire to talk. "After all, why not," concedes Maxime. The 26-year-old has four years with the company under his belt and a fair amount of bitterness in his voice. At the end of May, the management of the company, which specializes in the production of heat pumps, announced the relocation of its operations to Turkey and Slovakia by 2027. The parent company, which employs 7,000 people worldwide, also announced the elimination of 370 jobs, including 320 at the historic site in Alsace alone, which employs nearly 800 people. "We played the game," reacts Maxime, referring to the concessions made by the employees: bonuses postponed, Saturdays worked, vacation time exhausted, overtime paid, and machines running at full capacity. Next to Maxime, Alexis is disgusted: "It was hanging over management." An employee for three years, the thirty-year-old quips: "The De Dietrich group makes a profit, but apparently not here."

Here, no one talks about "BDR Thermea", the name given to the group after the merger sixteen years ago.