What we know about the plan of the Catholic billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin to promote conservative values ​​and make the right win the elections

This “cultural battle” plan aims to promote right-wing cultural values ​​by funding think tanks that aim to influence media framing. It also involves supporting political figures who are committed to its cause, led by RN.

He failed to buy the magazine Mariannebut his influence extends beyond his media properties. French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin, a devout Catholic and libertarian tax exile, does not only act through the many companies in which he owns shares. His teams have devised a structured plan to gain ground for his conservative political and religious values, through the media and by supporting right-wing and far-right political figures.

This project, called “Pericles”, is presented in detail in a document dating from 2023. Its existence was revealed in full by the left-wing daily Humanity, Thursday July 18, and confirmed by Pierre-Edouard Stérin’s teams to several media outlets, including Mediapart and The Sunday Journal. Here is what we know about this strategy of “cultural battle”as presented in FigaroVox Pierre-Edouard Stérin, one of the greatest fortunes in France, who owes his success in particular to the gift box company Smartbox.

In the document revealed by Humanitythe “Périclès” project (for “Patriots, Rooted, Resistants, Identitarians, Christians, Liberals, Europeans, Sovereignists”) is presented as founded and administered by Pierre-Édouard Stérin and two of his close associates: François Durvye, CEO of the Otium Capital fund, and Alban du Rostu, CEO of the Fonds du bien commun. The two financial structures belong to the billionaire, who has several times been ranked at the top of the ranking of French investors specializing in innovative companies, and who has for several years highlighted his donations to associations that support his values.

Their strategy aims to “to enable ideological, electoral and political victory” of a set of “key values”. Among them, liberal values ​​such as “individual and entrepreneurial freedom”and others more conservative or traditionalist, such as the presentation of “family” as the “basis of society”the claim of a “special place of Christianity” or a “pride in our history, our identity, our culture”. These ideas are placed in opposition to “trends” presented by the authors of the document as “the main ills of our country”in which they include in no particular order “socialism, wokeism, Islamism, immigration” Or “aggressive secularism”.

To distil their ideology, the designers of Pericles plan a strategy of action at all levels of society – legal, media, political and administrative. In the first stage, the plan provides for a “legal guerrilla warfare” against “Islamism, immigration, attacks on freedom of expression, gender theory (…) in order to change the fear of sides, enforce the law and defend against enemy attacks, change the law”A project already partially launched, through the creation of the Justitia collective in May 2023 in collaboration with the conservative think tank Institut Thomas More.

Pierre-Edouard Stérin’s team also includes “impose [ses] themes” and their privileged treatment through the media, social networks and the “intellectual production”To distribute them, the authors are counting on the production of 2024 “barometers” on the“Islam and insecurity”L’“immigration” or the“leftmost”in partnership with media responsible for relaying “massively these results to reach the entire French population”.

Ultimately, the authors of the Pericles Plan aim to spread their conservative ideas by creating “the first right-wing think tank in France to bring together the main thematic experts on sovereign issues”and so “to influence the political, media and intellectual sphere, to prepare political measures and reforms”.

At the level of political institutions, the document explains that it wants “identify priority elections” And “training for electoral combat” THE “candidates aligned” on this ideological project which have “the most chances of victory”To achieve this, the billionaire’s team is counting, for example, on the creation of a “school for future mayors” which would provide theoretical and practical training to candidates from September 2024 “sharing [leurs] values”so as to make them win the municipal elections in nearly 1,000 “small and medium-sized municipalities”.

One party is particularly supported by Pierre-Edouard Stérin: the National Rally. The designers of Pericles claim to aim for a “victory” of the RN in the 2026 municipal elections, by helping the far-right party with a “structured plan” and departmental teams responsible for“identify candidates” potential, with a goal of “300 cities to win absolutely”This project is presented as already partially launched.

The authors of the document deny that they want to help the RN exclusively, and intend “launch similar missions in the coming months that correspond to everyone’s needs (for example, recruiting candidates for LR)”. They also recommend to “building a presence close to the leaders of tomorrow” on the right, notably in Les Républicains, Reconquête and the National Rally. Among their priority targets: Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, with whom they say they already have a “trust” and a “real influence”.

In the longer term, the designers of the Pericles plan intend to prepare “ahead of the presidential election” from 2027 “a reserve of 1,000 people (technocrats, policy professionals, thematic experts)” acquired to their ideas and “able to be placed in key positions (cabinets, parastatal structures, senior administration)”. To achieve all these goals, Pericles’ administrators plan to spend about “150 million euros” in ten years.

Nearby Sunday Journal (which came under the control of another fervent Catholic billionaire, Vincent Bolloré), Pierre-Édouard Stérin’s teams confirmed the creation of Pericles, while adding that the document was “a bit dated”. “We will communicate more precisely about our projects very soon.”