Among the bosses, Marine Le Pen is no longer a foil

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Marine Le Pen no longer appears as a foil within employers

Marine Le Pen is no longer the infrequent candidate of five years ago in business circles. The latter are sensitive to some of his promises.

Officially, as in 2017, employers’ organizations reject Marine Le Pen. Its economic program “would lead the country to drop out compared to its neighbors and to put it on the fringes of the European Union, analyzes the Medef in a communicated, from April 11, 2022, the day following the first round of the presidential election It would damage the confidence of economic players, thus reducing investment and job creation”. François Asselin, president of the Confederation of SMEs (CPME), also affirms his rejection, but in a much less clear-cut way: “With Marine Le Pen, who has never been in business, it would be much more of an adventure [qu’avec Emmanuel Macron, NDLR]. She needs to give credibility to her program, and we see that the equation is complicated”, he explains in an interview with the newspaper. The echoespublished on April 12.

This caution is easily explained: in the eyes of the bosses, Marine Le Pen is in fact no longer the infrequent candidate of 2017. According to a poll by Harris interactive for Daily social connections, the far-right candidate has increased, in five years, from 8% to 20% of favorable opinion among supporters of employers’ organizations. Another investigation sent even more shivers down the spine of the officials of the Medef and the CPME: carried out by Ifop Fiducial on the evening of the first round, she assures us that 56% of business leaders slipped a Le Pen ballot into the ballot box.

Read alsoThe triple concealment of Marine Le Pen – Challenges

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“If Marine Le Pen’s speeches were passed blindly, her proposals would no doubt obtain real success with the bosses”, admits this official of a large industrial federation with regret. The change is due to substantive reasons. The candidate has given up on leaving the euro, part of her program which worried companies. Even if the desire to reinstate the control of goods at the borders raises serious questions: “It would certainly not be very good news for the French economy”, warns François Asselin.

Marine Le Pen has also erased her pension counter-reform, which originally proposed a return to 60 for all. And she was able, during her campaign, to place proposals that sound sweet to employers’ ears, such as the end of tax audits deemed too systematic. Added to this are his successful performances on the employers’ platforms. “I am not a Lepenist but, objectively, we must recognize that she returned the room to us”, analyzes Sophie de Menthon, president of the employers’ organization Ethic, who had invited her at the end of January to a great oral. Same success a few weeks later for its passage in front of the powerful federation of metallurgy, theUIMMon the occasion of which she promised the abolition of part of the production taxes and underlined the importance of industry in the homeland of Eiffel.

No Poujadism

“She is very strong, very good, explains the president of an SME union close to En Marche. But the consequences of the new curiosity it arouses should not be exaggerated. The bosses are not turning poujado. After the “yellow vests”, the Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, they are not tempted in the least by a political adventure. In fact, business leaders were rather betting on candidate LR.

Valérie Pécresse should have been the best anti-Le Pen insurance by allowing SME managers an orderly return to the fold of the right. “But as she missed her campaign, the leaders make their own account: between the reduction in corporate tax and the promises of reforms made by Macron, they will undoubtedly decide to vote for him”, estimates the president of a important federation. According to the Harris Interactive poll for Daily social connections, Emmanuel Macron’s audience with supporters of employers’ organizations would have actually increased during the five-year term – which is a performance. But the favorable opinion of business leaders, going from 21% in 2017 to 28% in 2022, still leaves good margins for progress. The outgoing president will therefore have to convince employers with concrete proposals and a promising speech, because he will no longer be able to rely on a republican leap of principle once morest the far right.