On the eve of a lunch between Jordan Bardella and the leaders of Medef, Sébastien Chenu defends the economic program of the National Rally (RN). Meeting the big bosses “does not mean aligning with them”, assured this Sunday the vice-president of the party to the RTL-Le Figaro-Public Senate-M6 Grand Jury.
Initially scheduled for March 2 then postponed after the municipal elections – and due to the war in Iran – this meal of the president of the RN with the members of the executive office of Medef was set for Monday.
Marine the CAC 40
Jordan Bardella will have the opportunity to discuss with the president of Medef, Patrick Martin, as well as with the heads of its most powerful federations: banking, insurance, construction, public works, commerce, metallurgy among others. For the employers’ organization, this meeting is part of a series of interviews with the leaders of the main political parties.
This lunch is not the first contact between Jordan Bardella and employers. “It is natural, obvious that we dialogue with economic circles,” argued the boss of the RN on France 2 on Wednesday evening. For his part, Patrick Martin, questioned about the relations between the Medef and the far-right party, insisted on “bursting the balloon”, affirming that the employers did not “massively take sides” with the RN.
Jordan Bardella had already been one of the six party leaders invited to speak in a debate during the Annual Meeting of Entrepreneurs of France (REF) organized at the end of August by Medef. He then rubbed shoulders with Manuel Bompard, Fabien Roussel, Marine Tondelier, Gabriel Attal and Bruno Retailleau.
At the beginning of April, another meeting, which was intended to be discreet, but revealed by Le Nouvels Obs, caused controversy. On the evening of April 7, Marine Le Pen and several big bosses of the CAC 40 including Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Patrick Pouyanné (TotalEnergies), the directors of Accor, Engie, Renault and Capgemini, and Cyrille Bolloré had dinner together at the famous Parisian restaurant Drouant. A first for Bernard Arnault, who has always claimed not to meet the RN.
“A normalization of relations”
Sunday, Sébastien Chenu affirmed the importance of meeting the big bosses. “It’s a normalization of the relations that we must have with the big bosses […] but an exchange is not an ideological alignment,” defended Sébastien Chenu. “I have very strong disagreements with Medef […] We are not promising a society without taxes when we sometimes have the feeling of hearing from a certain number of big bosses saying that there should no longer be any taxes. We cannot promise a society without a public sector,” he said.
“It’s to exchange with them, if we make mistakes, it can be interesting to correct them, but on the other hand it’s not to please them,” added RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy, guest of “En tout candor” on LCI. “We said “you’ll see, when Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen are confronted with Medef, they will change their minds on pensions” well no,” he assured.
Jean-Philippe Tanguy also indicated that his party was going to launch a consultation with bosses, large and small, “so that we get feedback from the field on the rules which are harmful standards”. “Today, we are overadministered: the public procurement code, the real estate code, the environment code, the labor code have become completely inflationary […] For example, in France, it takes 18 to 36 months to open a factory. In Belgium, it takes a year,” he said.
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