The Minister of the Economy, the Prime Minister and even the president by videoconference: the figures of the executive crowd Monday and Tuesday August 29 at the start of the Medef, facing bosses offended by a recent tax measure unfavorable to companies.
Elisabeth Borne (Matignon), Olivier Dussopt (Labour), Clément Beaune (Transport), Bruno Le Maire (Economy and Finance), Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Energy transition), Thomas Cazenave (Public accounts)… A dozen members of the government are expected at the Longchamp racecourse, in western Paris, for the Meeting of French Entrepreneurs (REF), the Medef summer school.
They were preceded by Emmanuel Macron, who hammered in a video message to the bosses that he “needs” them while calling on them for “unity” to win the battles for jobs and growth. “In the moment in which we live”, marked by multiple geopolitical uncertainties, “I am absolutely convinced that unity must prevail”, declared the French president. “I need you,” he hammered repeatedly in his video message. An appeal already launched in the same terms to the mayors of France in 2019, or to the members of the presidential party at the dawn of his re-election campaign in 2022.
“What I believe in this return to school is a message of unity. All united to win the battle for full employment, all united in a slightly more difficult situation where we must hold on and continue to have good French results, all united to project our country towards the challenges of tomorrow”. “You know that you have a president and a government which, when it commits to things, does it. I expect the same from you”, concluded the head of state.
Debate on the abolition of the CVAE
This intervention by Emmanuel Macron at the big meeting of the return to school of the Medef, the Meeting of Entrepreneurs of France (REF), is part of a background of concern from employers regarding the government’s tax policy vis-à-vis companies. . At the heart of the concerns of employers: the recent announcement of the staggering until 2027 of the abolition of the Contribution on the added value of companies (CVAE), a production tax which was to disappear completely in 2024. The new president of Medef , Patrick Martin, also felt that this decision was “a very bad signal” for companies liable for this production tax.
“The fiscal and social trajectory that you are going to agree with the government, which will result in finance bills and social security financing bills and everything that follows must, for me, stem from this battle. “, estimated Emmanuel Macron.
Before him, the Minister of Economy and Finance had already tried to reassure the business world on Monday morning about the stability of the government’s economic and fiscal policy. “There is nothing to worry about, we have shown remarkable consistency on lowering taxes, on households and on businesses. I will not deviate from this line,” he said on France Inter.