When far-right leader Marine Le Pen dined this month with around six of France Inc’s biggest names, including LVMH LVMH.PA chief executive Bernard Arnault, the conversation turned tense over her euroscepticism and her plans to reverse a contested pension reform, two sources with knowledge of the event said.
The April 7 dinner at the Drouant restaurant in central Paris marked a symbolic breakthrough for Le Pen – long shunned by France’s business elite – ahead of a presidential election next year to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
For years, French blue-chip companies studiously avoided engaging with Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) but, with polls indicating it could win the election, they are now trying to understand and influence its populist economic agenda.
The dinner invitation was made to Le Pen by Entreprise et Cite, an informal grouping for business leaders to hold off-the-record exchanges.
RN party chairman Jordan Bardella did not attend the dinner – which was first reported by weekly magazine Le Nouvel Obs – but is due to meet France’s main employers’ union, Medef, next week. Bardella, 30, is expected to be the RN’s presidential candidate if Le Pen fails in her appeal to overturn a court ruling barring her from running in the election.
ENGAGING WITH LE PEN’S PARTY
Medef boss Patrick Martin told reporters on Wednesday the group could no longer ignore the RN and needed to understand its economic programme.
“We will have to talk to representatives of the National Rally,” Martin said. “But that certainly does not mean we have taken sides with one party over another.”
RN lawmaker Matthias Renault welcomed that stance.
“At the very least, it shows that the companies in question are thinking ahead,” Renault told Reuters. “At a minimum, they’re considering how to deal with the RN, how to engage with us, or even how to influence us.”
The business leaders at the April 7 dinner also included the chief executives or chairs of oil major TotalEnergies TTEF.PA, state-backed utility group Engie ENGIE.PA and carmaker Renault RENA.PA.
They found Le Pen often to be light on policy detail and heavy on political ideology, said the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“(The conversation) was extremely courteous in form, but that… does not mean we agreed on substance,” the first of the sources said.
Le Pen’s euroscepticism — she wants a re-engineered European Union with more control for national governments and fewer supranational rules — and her plans to roll back a hard-fought reform of France’s generous pension system were the areas of sharpest disagreement, the two sources said.
While Le Pen pitched herself in the discussion as pro-business and pro-competition, her proposals on international trade and dealing with China lacked specificity, the first source added.
Le Pen and her party did not respond to a request for comment on the dinner, nor on specific elements of the talks as they were described to Reuters.
LVMH, Renault, TotalEnergies and Engie also did not respond to a request for comment on the dinner.
UNDERSTANDING RED LINES
Blue-chip executives have told Reuters the RN lacks clarity on corporate tax and on financing its spending plans, and also cite divergences on economic policy within the party leadership.
Le Pen is seen as a heavy-spending populist, while Bardella appears more economically liberal, analysts say.
The lack of a coherent economic programme is the RN’s biggest weakness, said Olivier Redoules, head of research at the pro-business Rexecode think tank.
“For a party like the RN, it’s important they understand the red lines of big business so they know how far they can push things,” Redoules said. “For companies, it’s important they ‘educate’ the party on how big corporations function.”
France’s $3.5 trillion economy, the second biggest in the euro zone, is hobbled by weak growth and heavy debt.
The RN says its economic programme includes strengthening household purchasing power through tax cuts and reducing spending by cutting contributions to the EU budget and restructuring welfare to prioritise French citizens.
RN lawmaker Renault said his party was aware of the fragile state of the French bond market.
Financial markets took fright when the RN polled strongly ahead of the last presidential election in 2022 – when Macron won a second and final term, defeating Le Pen – and a snap parliamentary election in 2024.
“If next year we take power, the main concern will be the reaction on financial markets – very concretely, what our first budget will be, what signals we send,” said Renault.
“If it goes wrong, it can spiral very quickly. We saw that in Britain with (former Prime Minister) Liz Truss (in 2022). So this has been well understood within the party.”
(Reuters)