despite Bruno Le Maire’s call, employers’ organizations are discreet in the face of the RN

The Minister of the Economy launched an appeal to business leaders and employers’ organizations, but the latter prefer to kick the can down the road.

“Let the economic world get wet!”, this is what Bruno Le Maire launched, to counter the National Rally during the early legislative elections. He asks the bosses to get involved and denounce the party’s economic program.

Since the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly on Sunday June 9, it is true that economic circles have been quite discreet. Unlike unions, such as the CGT or the CFDT, which immediately called for a barrier to the far right, the Medef and the CPME showed caution.

The employers’ organizations explain that they are not intended to play politics and that everyone must remain in their role and in their lane. This way of kicking in rather reflects an embarrassment, because they include, among their members, voters of the National Rally, whom they do not want to rob.

CPME and Medef each published a press release where the words were chosen, weighed and under-weighed. At no time is he registered “extreme”, for example and no party is mentioned. Rather than pointing out fears about each other’s programs, the organizations have decided to place their demands and priorities in the direction of future elected officials. Unsurprisingly, we thus find demands concerning the reduction in labor costs, the maintenance of aid to businesses, supply-side policy and even the simplification of the economy.

This positioning marks a real break, since a few years ago, the employers wanted nothing to do with the extreme right and refused to receive the representatives of the FN at the time. Today, RN candidates are accepted in the same way as others. Laurence Parisot, president of Medef from 2005 to 2013, even wrote a book, A navy blue trapin 2011.

However, the economic program of the National Rally worries the business community, but times have changed, and certain leaders, particularly the smaller ones, are also very sensitive to themes carried by the RN, such as Europe which is stifling activity because of standards, immigration or even assistantship versus work.

There is also a whole fringe of bosses, even if it is difficult to quantify, who are even more frightened by the positions of the extreme left on capital and property. Some confide behind the scenes that they would ultimately prefer to see the RN take power that France is rebellious, believing that it will be less destabilizing for the Economy.