by Leigh Thomas and Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS (Reuters) – The French economic elite is trying to come to terms with a new political landscape that is more hostile to it, a month after the setback in the legislative elections of the presidential camp, deprived of an absolute majority in the National Assembly with the thrust of the National Rally and La France insoumise, spearhead of the Nupes (union of the left).
Faced with a redesigned Assembly, Emmanuel Macron will have to govern differently with opposition forces that could stand in the way of his pro-business policies.
Among the great French business leaders gathered at the Economic Meetings of Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), a manager of one of the largest industrial companies in the country declared having had contact with some of the new elected.
“MPs need to better understand the reality of economic activity and business. We need to make our activities understood. There are plenty of new people who have entered the Assembly, the near which we will explain that we are not the absolute devil,” he told Reuters.
The memory of the major demonstrations of the “yellow vests” movement in the fall of 2018 remains etched in people’s minds and the government absolutely wants to avoid adding a possible political crisis to a cost of living crisis.
As a result, the government is vulnerable to pressure to relieve households of inflation with costly new measures to support French incomes, said Paul Hermelin, Chairman of Capgemini’s Board of Directors.
“Let’s not overlook that the results of the elections we have just experienced lead us to a confused situation, to electorates with a very combative left-wing leader,” he said.
“You have to say that this can generate on the part of the government the concern to calm strikes by wage concessions”, added Paul Hermelin.
The government last week unveiled a set of new measures, to the tune of 20 billion euros, intended to support the purchasing power of the French in the face of soaring inflation, in particular by extending the energy shield and by capping the amount of rent.
While some entrepreneurs seek to forge ties with the opposition parties, others are counting on an erosion of their popular support, even on a renunciation of their most radical proposals in the face of the urgency of the crisis of the cost of life.
“I told the Prime Minister, we are in a far-fetched situation (…) But the French will realize the futility of what they are told,” the president of a company told Reuters. French industry.
“There are parties in parliament that have more radical positions than others and they will have to learn to be responsible,” said another company president.
(Report Leigh Thomas and Mathieu Rosemain; written by Leigh Thomas, French version Laetitia Volga)