Of course, there was this unexpected handshake between Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, the latter advancing with a determined step towards her rival who entered the stage as she left it, under the amused eye of a floor of bosses invited by the Medef, Monday, February 21.
But there were also some unusual moments. Like those frank bursts of laughter, triggered by Fabien Roussel when he promised to nationalize the insurer Axa; and this curious « bravo ! », in the back of the room. After all, the candidate of the Communist Party (PCF), who was giving his grand oral to the bosses with five other suitors, had in mind “lower costs” on businesses. But he thought rather of those “what does insurance weigh on them?” There was also this astonishing slip from Eric Zemmour, speaking of the ” beautiful eyes “ the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, seated in the front row and hilarious behind his mask; “he may have beautiful eyes, but his name is Bézieux”, he corrected himself, before trying to “scratch five minutes” on his speaking time.
Parading on a podium placed in the middle of the Station F incubator in Paris, the candidates did not all succeed in seducing the audience, populated by representatives of employers’ federations rather than business leaders. A few start-ups in sneakers, installed in transparent cubic structures overhanging the stage, surfboard in a corner for the decoration, sometimes raised their noses from their screen to listen to the speeches, which were addressed more to the old world than to the new. But apart from Eric Zemmour, whose employers were no doubt waiting for him to clarify his economic vision of the country’s future, the contenders were mainly there to talk to their electorate.
“The bosses will live well” with Macron or Pécresse
In fact, the candidate of Reconquête!, following a short presentation presenting measures already known, quickly switched to the theme of “zero immigration”. A divisive subject for some of the business leaders present, who call on an immigrant workforce. Many were dumbfounded by his proposal to replace immigrants “Africans” by the “Poles or Romanians” – having the advantage of being Europeans – in the construction or maintenance trades which need cheap labour. “But then what regarding the French? », asked a boss.
the “economic patriotism” defended by Marine Le Pen, who has promised to create a large fund fed by household savings to “renationalize the highways”, did not seem to win the support either, even if, in the front row, a very concentrated spectator filmed the entire intervention of the candidate of the National Rally.
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