Will France's 'forgotten' workers get what they want?

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A group of men are building huge pipes and girders in a cavernous factory in France.

Their work is illuminated by the blue glow of welding machines, as cutting machines are used to hone and shape the rough metal. There is red dust in the air.

The Fensch valley is part of the industrial heartlands. Le Grand Paris Express, a major new subway system for the capital, will be built using the structures being made here.

The factory's director is worried. 50 people were employed in the plant by Stephane Costarella. There are 25 now. The rising cost of steel has forced him to cut his costs to the bone.

The metal is not being produced in France. Some of it comes from across the border in Luxemburg. The Russian invasion has made it harder to get the right kind of steel.

Mr Costarella explains that it is hard to get supplies. The price of the steel we do get is really expensive, and there is absolutely nothing left in storage.

Over the past few weeks, his gas and electricity bills have doubled, as he has to cut and shape inch-thick steel.

He says he has stopped quoting prices for new projects because costs are rising daily.

The steel sector has been at the heart of the decline in the industrial region and the current crisis is just the latest blow.

The region has been making steel for more than a hundred years, according to a former steelworker and union activist. 100,000 people working. There were factories all along the valley.

A blast furnace is a giant oven used to extract metal from iron Ore by heating it to very high temperatures while mixed with coke.

They have been used in the beginning of the steelmaking process. They are expensive to run and require manpower. Many have closed in Europe in recent years. Only a few are left in the UK.

Florange was the last plant to close in the Moselle region.

The factory is run by ArcelorMittal, which is based in nearby Luxemburg. 2000 people work at it, making steel products for the motor industry.

The furnace has been cold for a decade. Their structures are a bitter symbol of a lost battle for locals.

France was in the middle of a presidential election campaign ten years ago. The future of the Florange furnaces was a big topic. They had been closed for a while, but locals knew they were unlikely to reopen.

Workers marched on the capital to make their feelings known.

Francois Hollande came to Florange and promised to protect the steel industry. The blast furnaces closed after two years.

The future of French industry and the jobs that go with it, are once again coming under scrutiny as another election looms.

Mr Martin, who was a socialist in the European parliament, thinks action needs to be taken to safeguard the sector.

He insists that we cannot let it all go as we look at what remains of the Florange plant. The huge furnaces are surrounded by razor-wire fences.

We cannot rely on others for everything. For example, buying all our steel from China.

Look at what has happened with the war in Ukraine. Russia is completely dependent on us for gas. It is the same for both oil and steel. We need to make things for ourselves.

Image source, Getty Images

Europe will need to say that we need to preserve our industry and support it.

We need to keep our knowledge. innovation, research and development will be the focus of the future. In order to promote research, we need an industrial base.

The government should invest in green technology, such as waste and water management and renewable energy, rather than prop up traditional industry, according to the University of Lorraine's Olivier Dammette.

He says that the heavy industry only forms a small part of the French economy.

To support industry, you would need a lot of public money.

You would save some jobs, but at a high cost.

The fate of traditional industries has not been the focus of the election campaign due to the conflict in Ukraine and the increasing cost of living.

People in the Fensch and Moselle valleys still feel their losses, and remember the promises made in the past. There is a lack of trust in mainstream politics. In the last presidential election, a third of voters did not show up at the polls, which is much higher than the national average. In regional elections last year, the abstention rate was over 70%.

Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National has received strong support.

What voters in this region think may be significant in an election race that appears to be getting ever closer.