“Risk of financial instability”: employers’ organizations are worried that the National Rally (RN), if it wins the legislative elections, will unravel an economic policy which has allowed businesses and employment to do better since 2017 , but avoid attacking it too head-on.
Tuesday morning, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire called on “the economic world” to “get wet” against the RN, and in particular the two largest employers’ organizations, Medef and CPME, to “say clearly what they think about each other’s economic programs” and to warn about “the bill for Marine Le Pen’s Marxist program”.
The day before, the three representative organizations, the Medef, which defends companies of all sizes and among them the largest, the CPME (small and medium-sized enterprises) and the U2P (local businesses) considered publishing a common position, before giving it up.
“Risk of financial instability”
Tuesday, in a press release which does not cite any party, but clearly aimed at projects of the RN and, for good measure, of LFI, the Medef said it feared the proposals of “some”, “ranging from the return of retirement to 60 to the automatic indexation of salaries to inflation, including the exit from nuclear or wind energy.
“They would inevitably result in a further deterioration of our public finances and in tax increases for households and businesses,” assured Medef, also pointing to a risk of “financial instability and mistrust from our economic partners” .
The CPME also avoided citing the RN in its own press release, while recalling its priorities: continuation of the supply-side policy, decarbonization of the economy and reform of the social protection system. “Anyone who would undertake costly reforms without taking into account” the state of public finances “would expose France to a major risk,” she warned.
As a sign of concern, the president of Medef, Patrick Martin, and that of U2P, Michel Picon, decided on Monday to temporarily put aside their strong points of contention of recent months. “We agreed to put these subjects on pause during the campaign, to prioritize the interests of our companies in the face of the risks of crazy economic or social proposals,” Michel Picon explained to AFP.
He recalled that the U2P had criticized Marine Le Pen’s economic program in 2022. Today, the organization wants to “respect the choice of the people”, but expects the RN to clarify its positions, on subjects such as retirement or immigration. On this last point, “what about for all the people who work for us today? », asked Michel Picon.
More recklessly, the Center for Young Leaders (CJD), which is not part of the representative employers’ organizations, on Tuesday ordered its members to “go and vote” in the legislative elections, “at a time when the far-right parties are reaching historic levels of voting.
“There is no contagion from employers by the RN”
Individually, the bosses tried on Monday and Tuesday to keep a cool head in the face of the possible impact of a push by the RN. “Don’t panic, it’s not done! », underlined the management of a heavyweight of the CAC 40, also hoping “that once in power, responsibilities, that empowers! » The boss of the French subsidiary of a European industrial group regretted “that we know nothing” about the economic program of the RN, and was worried about the possible end of a Macronist policy of supply “which carried its fruit”.
In another CAC 40 company, a bitter observation was made on Tuesday: “Everyone thinks the same thing (of the RN economic program, Editor’s note) but don’t dare say it, for two main reasons.” On the one hand, companies do not want to alienate RN voters. On the other hand, since this party proposes the taxation of superprofits in its European program, “no one wants to add fuel to the fire”.
“There is no contagion of employers by the RN,” said a former minister and member of the majority on Monday. But a Renaissance deputy feared that “a very significant gap” in the legislative elections “would convince a certain number of competent people to get on the wagon”.