2023-12-07 17:00:01
Marine Le Pen, then presidential candidate for the National Rally, presents her economic campaign program at Medef, in Paris, February 21, 2022. ERIC PIERMONT/AFP
Lunch did not take place in a private room, but in full view, at a slightly elevated table, overlooking the large room with colonnades and moldings. It was at the Laurent, a plush restaurant in the Parisian “golden triangle” of business, that Marine Le Pen chose to appear with the former boss of EDF Henri Proglio on November 21. Objective achieved: even before being relayed by The chained Duckthe information traveled around Paris, even finding its way into the conversations of Le Siècle, this very select club of the economic and political elite whose members met the next day for their monthly dinner.
Since she succeeded in installing 89 deputies in the National Assembly in June 2022 (88 today), the leader of the National Rally (RN) has multiplied her gestures towards economic circles – this small world of bosses and executives, financiers and large shareholder families -, to serve its ambition of accessing the Elysée in 2027. With the hope of arousing as little rejection as possible, and of attracting upper categories and retirees.
Because, if the RN’s speech traditionally finds an echo among artisans, traders or small businesses, with multinationals and French investors it is another story. These, failing to conquer them, the RN seeks to ” unplug “, as summarized by the RN deputy for the Somme Jean-Philippe Tanguy.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers The National Rally and Marine Le Pen accelerate their normalization in a climate favorable to populism
A strategy explained by the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella. ” To win [en 2027]we must tie part of the elites to the popular bloc, he declares to World. We will win if we can reassure. And if we talk to France which is successful. » Marine Le Pen’s right-hand man himself launched a seduction operation with the bosses, by going to the campus of the prestigious HEC business school on November 28, where he was invited for the first time, to speak to the “decision makers of tomorrow”. Nearly 300 students came.
“We are reasonable people”
In Parisian economic circles, Marine Le Pen is still frightening, notably with her promise to return to retirement at 60, or her promise to reestablish a tax on financial capital, such as a wealth tax, even if the very liberal Alain Madelin gives him some advice. If she accessed the Elysée, “its 2022 program shows that it would not put any limit on the budget deficit, estimates the essayist Alain Minc, advisor to many big bosses. It would hit the market wall in twenty-four hours. It would happen to him much worse than what happened to Mrs. Truss in England [Liz Truss était restée un peu plus d’un mois au poste de première ministre britannique, en 2022] ».
You have 80% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#National #Rallys #seduction #operation #among #bosses