Officials of the Mouvement des entreprises de France (Medef) have considered the proposals of the two candidates for the presidential election qualified for the second round. The Executive Council of the organization is without appeal: the economic projects of the outgoing president are the most favorable to growth and employment, judge the bosses of the bosses.
In a press release issued on Monday evening, the Medef also believes that Marine Le Pen’s economic program would lead the country to “drop out compared to its neighbors and put it on the sidelines of the European Union”. “It (the RN candidate’s program) would damage the confidence of economic players, thus reducing investment and job creation. The very strong and unfunded increase in public spending could put the country in a dead end, ”writes the Medef.
However, the employers’ organization does not give a blank check to the former Minister of the Economy. “He is in the best position to prepare France for the challenges of the future by choosing competitiveness and sustainable growth. But it has shortcomings,” the statement continued.
Already the same position in 2017
The Medef had already supported Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen five years ago, while refusing to grant him a “blank check”. Its leader at the time, Pierre Gattaz, said he was ready to make “resistance” if Marine Le Pen was elected, judging her “extremely dangerous by her economic and social program”.
For next April 24, the employers’ organization is calling for people to vote and says that it “will have strong demands so that the social partners and companies are really associated with the reforms in a context that requires more than ever to be listening to representative organisations”.
The CFDT, the first union in France, had called, Sunday evening in a press release, to “beat the candidate of the National Rally by voting for Emmanuel Macron” in the second round of the presidential election on April 24. “This call does not imply either approval of the outgoing president’s balance sheet or adherence to his program,” added the confederation.
People saying they were close to a union of employees were 21% to vote for Marine Le Pen on Sunday, eight points more than in 2017, according to a Harris Interactive poll for Liaisons sociales Quotidien published on Monday. These people claiming to be close to a union were also 27% to vote for Emmanuel Macron (against 27.85% in 2017), CFDT in the lead.