PARIS (AP) — France’s Socialist leader summoned three CEOs to the presidential palace on Monday to orchestrate the sale of Alstom, an engineering firm and treasure of French industry, in the government’s latest effort to bring globalization to heel.

President Francois Hollande’s decision to jump into the talks on a proposed merger with either General Electric or Siemens is part of a long tradition of French state interference in corporate life that claims to protect national security and to keep jobs and companies in the country.