PARIS â€" Shortly after news leaked last week that General Electric was working on a multibillion-dollar deal to buy part of the French industrial giant Alstom, Patrick Kron, Alstom’s chief executive, got an urgent summons.
France’s economy minister, Arnaud Montebourg, was demanding that Mr. Kron come to his office immediately to explain why Alstom, a crown jewel of French industry, was negotiating to sell its energy business to the American conglomerate without first informing the government.
By Sunday, Mr. Montebourg made it clear that he was backing a different outcome. He would rather that G.E.’s German rival, Siemens, win the bidding for the energy business and transfer its own transportation operations to Alstom, a world-class maker of high-speed trains. That would be the way to keep Alstom a company with, as he put it, a ‘‘Made in France’’ label.
On Monday, G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, was at the Élysée Palace, to make his case to Mr. Montebourg and France’s president, François Hollande. Then, in a separate meeting afterward, the officials talked with Siemens’s chief, Joe Kaeser.
On a day when many European heads of state were preoccupied with economic sanctions on Russia, the French government’s intimate involvement in a corporate takeover battle spoke volumes about France’s continued efforts to shield its economy. It was only the latest in a series of efforts by the Hollande administration to protect iconic French companies as the nation struggles to regain its industrial might.
The deal-brokering came two months after Mr. Hollande sought to persuade international investors that France, which is struggling with a slow recovery, was ‘‘open for business.’’ And it raised questions from economic conservatives about whether the government was out of step with globalization.
The Socialist government described its actions simply as business as usual.
‘‘France is reacting normally,’’ said a spokeswoman for Mr. Montebourg. ‘‘My guess is that in the United States, President Obama would be equally concerned’’ if a foreign company were interested in one of its major companies, especially regarding critical technologies like nuclear power or high-speed trains, she said. ‘‘And taking a little more time to think it through will not hurt anyone.’’
In French eyes, Alstom â€" which employs 93,000 people worldwide, 18,000 of them in France â€" is a symbol of national technological might and know-how. The company’s sleek, high-speed TGV trains streak across the French countryside and its Eurostar trains connect Paris to London in a two-hour trip via the Eurotunnel. About one-third of the world’s nuclear plants use its turbines to turn steam into electricity.
The G.E. offer, Mr. Montebourg said on Monday in a radio interview, ‘‘poses a problem for one simple reason.â€
“That is, that most of Alstom â€" 75 percent of the company, 65,000 employees worldwide â€" would be managed from Connecticut,’’ where General Electric is based, he said.
Mr. Immelt of G.E. said in a statement after his meeting with French officials that the discussion had been ‘‘open, friendly and productive.’’ He added, ‘‘It was important to hear in person President Hollande’s perspective and to discuss our plans, our successful track record of investing in France, and our long-term commitment to the country.’’
Mr. Hollande and Mr. Montebourg also plan to talk with Martin Bouygues, the billionaire whose family controls Bouygues, Alstom’s largest shareholder, and who supports G.E.’s offer. Some analysts conjectured that in the end, the theater of the Élysée Palace meetings might have the effect of wresting better terms for Alstom from G.E., even if Siemens does not prevail.
G.E., which has been operating in France for more than four decades and already employs 10,000 people in the country, has not been discouraged by the government’s keen interest in its Alstom bid, according to a person close to the company who was not authorized to speak publicly. That person pointed to G.E.’s ‘‘hugely successful’’ aircraft engine joint venture with the French company Safran as a reason for optimism that an agreement would be reached over Alstom.
‘‘It’s not a done deal, but we’re confident,’’ the person said.
Mr. Montebourg has welcomed the competing bid from Siemens as a case for ‘‘European champions’’ that would redraw the industrial map of Europe. Siemens would become even more of a player in power systems, while Alstom would hold sway in transportation, leaving both companies dominant in their respective domains.
Or at least that is the theory, which may not hold up in a global competitive context.
‘‘It’s always been like this: Whenever a foreign firm wants to take a French firm, the government steps in,’’ said Jean-Paul Fitoussi, professor of economics at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris. ‘‘What should be reassuring for the rest of the world is that the government has almost always lost.’’
For instance, in 2006, when the Indian steel giant Mittal sought to buy a competitor, Arcelor, which was based in Luxembourg but had extensive operations in France, the government under President Jacques Chirac put up a fight. But at the end of the day, Mittal took over.
‘‘Globalization has never been considered as a totally good thing in France,’’ Mr. Fitoussi said. ‘‘On the other hand, there is little the government can do to stop it.’’
In demanding that the interests of the public be paramount over the shareholders’, the government is upholding the tradition of dirigisme, an interventionist approach that historically has informed French economic thinking.
Domestic politics may be forcing Mr. Hollande’s hand more than anything else. A long downturn in the labor market has driven his approval ratings to a record low, and the left wing of his own Socialist Party is rebelling over the government’s corporate-friendly approach to economic policy.
This year, he pledged to reduce by 30 billion euros, or $41 billion, the social charges that companies pay on their employees, and announced plans to stabilize corporate tax rules, simplify customs procedures for imports and exports, and introduce a tax break for foreign start-ups. Those moves have come even as the government has announced €50 billion in austerity measures through 2017.
Mr. Montebourg, who was just named economy minister in a government shake-up after the Socialists fared badly in local elections, has fashioned himself as a leading opponent of globalization. And he has sometimes prevailed, as last year, when as industrial renewal minister he blocked Yahoo’s bid for a French video website, DailyMotion.
For all the hand-wringing, France remains one of the most attractive countries in which to do business for multinational companies, with more than 20,000 foreign-owned companies that together employ nearly two million people. They include household names like Walt Disney, McDonald’s and United Technologies.
But Alstom is in trouble. The company has suffered from a downturn in orders as a result of the weak European economy and growing competition from Asia. Last year, Mr. Kron, the chief executive, told investors that Alstom might spin off its transportation business to raise cash.
There is relatively little overlap between the power generation businesses of Siemens and Alstom, but they compete closely as suppliers of equipment for power grids, like large transformers or high-voltage lines. The antitrust authorities would certainly scrutinize any deal closely.
Alstom is regarded as a relatively small player in the fast-growing gas generator business for electric utilities, which is dominated by Siemens, G.E. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
And while Alstom is strong in steam technology for power generation, current demand for such systems is weak, industry sources say.
In renewable energy, Alstom is strong in hydroelectric power, which accounted for sales of about €1.4 billion, or $1.9 billion, in the last fiscal year. Siemens, by contrast, has focused on wind energy, especially equipment for offshore wind generation. Siemens, based in Munich, also owns a minority stake in a joint venture, Voith Siemens Hydro, which provides equipment for hydroelectric plants.
A spokesman for the German government declined to comment on Monday about Siemens’s Alstom negotiations.
Evariste Lefeuvre, chief economist for North America at Natixis, a French corporate and investment bank, said that easier tax and labor rules are what will attract more foreign investment to France, although large foreign companies trying to buy into any major French business know they will ultimately have to contend with the government.
‘‘They are trying to make France into a more pro-business environment,’’ said Mr. Lefeuvre, who is based in New York. ‘‘But the old ghosts still come back very quickly, and that is the idea of the big, bad American guys trying to take over weak French companies that would be better off instead in a deal with Germans.’’
Jack Ewing contributed reporting from Frankfurt.
