Medef is back to school and stresses that “political uncertainty does not give employers a sufficient level of confidence”

The employers’ union opens its summer university in Paris on Monday. The opportunity to reiterate its desire for “visibility” and “stability” in the period of political uncertainty.

The bosses are also waiting for a name for Matignon, while the consultations continue on Monday, August 26 between Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of the parties and parliamentary groups, with a view to forming a new government. The Medef opens its summer university, called La Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France, at the Paris Longchamp racecourse on the same day.

Now that the summer and the Olympic Games are over, the political situation is being closely scrutinized by business circles. What business leaders are expecting can be summed up in two words: “visibility” and above all “stability”.

A good example is Béatrice Lamourette’s company, which publishes purchasing software for other companies. She has noticed that her order book is filling up less quickly than usual: “There, typically, we have a client for whom we had the agreement in principle in February, but I think that the contractualization will not be done before the end of the year…” Consequence: “no billing” and so “no income”, “which is completely absurd” according to the business leader.

Customers and Béatrice Lamourette herself are raising their pens, cautious after three years of inflation and rising energy prices, and after almost three months without a government. “Political uncertainty does not provide sufficient confidence to continue investing, she continues. It’s true that we hesitate.”

“I was thinking of hiring at least two people in 2025, but if I hire one, that will be great.”

Béatrice Lamourette, business leader

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However, the positive signs are there, says a Medef executive: unemployment is stable, reindustrialization is continuing… The best in the eyes of the employers’ union would therefore be, of course, an executive, but one that would do as little as possible. “We have had, year in and year out, seven years, almost ten years of supply-side policy, because it started with François Hollande. It worked rather well for the French, they had work, there was sharing, value… What can worry a business leader is to question that,” explains Dominique Carlac’h, member of the executive board of Medef.

Who says government also says budget for 2025, and therefore visibility also for Europe and the markets.