It's like the thing about the mouse complaining that the cheese was moved.

Airplanes (or "aeroplanes" on that side of the pond) have always been reusable, so Airbus was able to establish itself and build a stable business building them.

Rockets have always been non-reusable (until SpaceX), so ArianeGroup built a stable business around that assumption. Now they're being out-competed by a foreign company that has proven that assumption wrong, and they don't know what to do except demand more subsidies and a monopoly so they don't have to compete.