“Bercy got our scalp”: ​​employees denounce “the end” of 60 million consumers

“We are disgusted”, “Bercy has had our scalp”: ​​around fifty employees, elected officials and citizens gathered on Monday in front of the National Consumer Institute (INC) in Malakoff, near Paris, against the liquidation of this public body which publishes the magazine 60 million consumers.

“We are victims of a decision that no one understands,” says Lionel Maugain, CFDT union representative and long-time journalist. For him, the budgetary argument put forward by the government is just a smokescreen.

The liquidation of the public body and its magazine 60 million consumers was confirmed in the 2026 budget, about to be definitively adopted with the use of article 49.3 then the predictable rejection of two motions of censure.

60 employees risk dismissal

The liquidation of the Institute, created in 1966 and which became a public industrial and commercial establishment (EPIC) in 1990, should cost 8 million euros according to the government. The SNME CFDT mentions a cost of “11 million” euros.

In 2024, the INC’s deficit reached 719,000 euros for a turnover of 11.6 million euros, according to Lionel Maugain. “It’s budgetary dogmatism. They needed an agency, Bercy got our scalp. They have been trying to kill us for years, this time it is the case,” he regrets. With the magazine, 60 employees risk dismissal, unless a private buyer is found, as the government would like.

A potential recovery, “but at what price? », asks Bertrand Loiseau, secretary of the CSE: “I have difficulty seeing how we could have this complete independence in the private sector” for a newspaper with “zero advertising”. “Unfortunately I think we are reaching the end, it still seems difficult to us,” he concludes.

“Huge waste”

Patricia Chairopoulos, journalist and head of the food and environment section, does not hide her “disgust”. This specialist in pesticides, food additives and pollutants describes a “huge waste”.

“We work in tandem with engineers, we do market studies, we demonstrate things in the laboratory,” she explains. Losing the INC means leaving the consumer a little more helpless in the face of industrial marketing: “Everyone will pay the price”.

A rebellious MP for the constituency, Aurélien Saintoul, who came to support the demonstrators, describes the liquidation as “sabotage” against a whistleblower and judges the budgetary savings to be derisory. For him, “crime will benefit all those who aim to maximize their profit by reducing the quality of all products”.

An “irreplaceable” role

A journalist for 17 years for 60 million consumers, Brigitte Glass is fatalistic: “This is not the first attack, but it seems to be the right one.” “There is perhaps still a way to fight,” says Jean-Pierre Béquet, vice-president of the board of directors of the INC and former socialist deputy, who evokes, to maintain hope, the possibility of a final appeal before the Constitutional Council.

“Today, we have to face invasions of products that are dangerous,” he emphasizes, “the Shein affair is on everyone’s minds, but there are also waters, contaminated milks and many others.” The affair of sex dolls bearing the image of children discovered on the Shein site at the end of October was triggered by a report from a reader of 60 million consumers to the magazine, who then notified the authorities.

In this type of case, or in the face of industrial lobbies, which “attack all public services” including that of consumer assistance, the role of “counter-power” of the INC is “irreplaceable” according to Béquet.