The outsider in the election to the presidency of Medef willingly confides in his career; son of workers and grandson of Serbian refugees, he created his first company at the age of 11 in college where he ran a supply cooperative before launching, alone, his wage portage company, 20 years ago, which has now become an ETI of 1000 employees. He calls for a real campaign, in the interest of the employers’ organization.
You entered the campaign with a critical eye on the Medef. It’s a strategy?
I get hit on social networks because I said that the Medef has an elitist image, members of the Cac 40. But I talked regarding an image, these are the feedback I have on the ground. We are at a turning point, we see it with the pension reform. We are facing a society reacting once morest a locked system and my candidacy aims to demonstrate that the Medef has been able to learn the lessons of the past. There is the vertical Medef which represents the professional branches and the Medef of the territories. In the Yvelines chamber of trades that I chair, we mainly see young people from rural areas and priority neighborhoods because they have understood that the social ladder works for those who take risks.
Medef is disconnected from this reality according to you?
The Medef must be more of a service structure for members whose number one subjects today are the energy bill, reimbursement of the PGE, digitalization, ecological transition, recruitment… 95% of companies are micro-enterprises. Me when I created mine I was alone. It is necessary to carry the word of the large companies but also of the very small ones. We are at a turning point in our history, a hundred years following the creation of the labor code, perhaps we need to realize that wage labor was only a parenthesis. France is a country of traders, entrepreneurs, craftsmen… This also raises the question of the place of youth in an employers’ organization. These young people we hear in the street might be taken on board by the Medef.
Comment?
We must rely on education, have pro-business, pro-economic lessons, direct students towards sectors of the future such as transport, the silver economy, green industry, the industry of the future, all driven by digital, robotics. The Medef must convey a modern image of the economy. We are going to have to support 90% of workers who will have to retrain or adapt their skills. To have sustainable growth, we must continue with the policy of supply, with a combat Medef embodied by Pierre Gattaz.
This is not the case so far?
The challenge is also to modernize social dialogue, to make it more aggressive. We currently have a renewal at the head of the unions with the arrival of women. Sharing the value is a good thing, but what has Medef done for 5 years for the 4 million French companies? An agreement on the sharing of value, another on teleworking, we bet on diversity, we have parity at 30/70. But we have threats to our economy, anti-capitalist movements that are flourishing in Europe and in 4 years a president who might have another political color. If I am a candidate it is in the interest of Medef, because if there is no debate, no competition, we can talk regarding a hold-up at the head of the main French employers’ organization. We work for the French, for those who would like to find hope outside of politics. I am convinced that there is a card to play.
