Michelle and Barack Obama ultimately did not come. No one knows if they were really advertised, but whatever. The rumor spread like wildfire among the celebrities invited to the extravagant Louis Vuitton fashion show on the Pont-Neuf in Paris on June 20. And everyone believed it. The brand, sixteen years ago, had offered itself an advertising campaign with Mikhail Gorbachev, his hand resting on a Vuitton bag in the back of a car, in front of the Berlin wall… How to resist the largest group luxury in the world?
A G20 summit could not have been more secure: a swarm of black sedans with tinted windows lined up on the banks of the Seine, graciously transformed for the group into a VIP car park, bodyguards in earpieces, dozens of police officers mobilized to protect the Areopagus American stars, from Rihanna to Leonardo DiCaprio, came to admire the first fashion show by designer Pharrell Williams… Zealous, the prefecture had cordoned off the entire district, causing huge traffic jams. “Know that Mr. Arnault creates a lot of jobs”was heard to answer by a security guard an exasperated resident.
In a country like France, being the richest man in the world (or the second, alternately with Elon Musk), confers a special status. No one puts it that way, but no one disputes it: the CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, is considered the equal of a head of state. Never, before him, had France occupied first place in these rankings, which the American press loves. Equally unprecedented, the fact that a company reaches a valuation higher than the state budget, between 400 and 500 billion euros. “For the first time in France, where there is nothing above the State, an individual is more powerful than the king”summarizes the economist and philosopher Jérôme Batout.
Bernard Arnault, inseparable from the group of which he and his family own 48%, is the only non-American boss to have such firepower. The symbol of an inversion of the balance of power between political power and large groups, at work on a global level. “Large companies are organizations whose power now goes beyond the economic sphere alone.writes the essayist Olivier Basso in his book Very large company policy (PUF, 2015). They participate in the creation of the world in which we live. In fact, they have become political actors. » A power without borders, without democratic legitimation, and by nature competing with States. “Bernard Arnault has reached a level of economic power such that he has reversed the balance of power with politics, abounds the deputy of Paris Gilles Le Gendre (Renaissance). There are no other cases in history in France. »
You have 88.13% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.