When the political crisis reaches its peak, they pride themselves on their ability to overcome disagreements to reach agreements. “The company is the place where we know how to make concessions, negotiate with stakeholders with whom we do not have the same vision, with whom we do not necessarily agree. This is perhaps an example that could be used in the current political situation,” assures the CEO of Maif, Pascal Demurger. And his debater, the president of Medef Patrick Martin, discreetly nods. On this beautiful day at the end of August in Paris, the argument will have been one of the rare ones to bring the two business leaders together. Because the world of bosses is also crossed by its share of discord.
Their scattered return to school is evidence of this. While some have gathered at the very chic Longchamp racecourse, southwest of Paris, to take part in the traditional high mass organized each year by the Mouvement des entreprises de France, others have preferred the summer universities of Impact France, with their social and ecological coloring, in the lecture halls of the Cité U in the south of the capital. Born from the merger between the Mouvement des entrepreneurs sociaux and the Tech for Good network, this “alter-Medef” of 15,000 “committed entrepreneurs” – among which are some big names such as SNCF, La Poste and Doctolib – has been led since 2023 by Pascal Demurger and the founder of the French ready-to-wear brand Loom, Julia Faure. Two movements and two visions, often antagonistic, on the policies to be implemented and the place of the company in society.
Supply-side policy in question
On the Medef side, Patrick Martin has constantly defended the maintenance and deepening of the policy in favor of businesses that has been in place for almost a decade in France. A belated tribute to one of its main architects, Bruno Le Maire, who had called on employers’ organizations to take a clear stand against the National Rally before the first round of the legislative elections in June… In vain. Only Impact France had issued a press release to express its concern about the rise of the RN, estimating that “a victory for the extreme right would mean the economic decline of France”. A choice that had caused internal turmoil. Philippe Zaouati, the CEO of the asset management company Mirova, had slammed the door in the face of an “exclusively anti-RN position”, deploring that the organization also refused to distance itself from LFI.
“Significant improvements have been made in recent years in terms of competitiveness, but they have not put us on an equal footing with our competitors” on an international scale, Patrick Martin has since conceded. And the boss of the bosses has promised that a questioning of “the supply policy can only accelerate our downgrading”. “This will be paid for in cash”, he warned.
With her cap screwed on her head, Julia Faure offers another reading of the issues. “We want to reconcile economic performance and common interest. However, a pro-business policy that does not take into account social and environmental issues produces malaise and chaos,” insists this early opponent of the Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Shein, in line with the “progressive and modern” line that she says she wants to defend at the head of Impact France. At her side, Pascal Demurger has made the conditionality of aid granted to companies one of his fights. Long supported by certain unions, the proposal has re-emerged in the public debate through the program of the New Popular Front. But the rejection of Lucie Castets’ candidacy for Matignon by Emmanuel Macron seems for the moment to have relegated the initiative to the closet.
The bone of contention over the conditionality of aid
Unless she makes her comeback through the head of Maif himself? For several days, her name has been circulating in the long list of “prime ministerial candidates” profiles, among which are the eternal returnee Bernard Cazeneuve, who already briefly spent time at Matignon, or another business leader, the former head of Michelin who became president of Renault, Jean-Dominique Senard. “I am honored that the ideas I carry […] are recognized,” Pascal Demurger simply declared on BFM Business. Because the conditionality of aid is not the only string to his bow.
The CEO, whose group was among the first to transform itself into a mission-driven company, would also welcome “the remuneration of executives and managers being fairly broadly indexed to non-financial results” such as CO2 emission reduction targets. “Companies are driven by their own interests, that’s the natural order of things. If we simply let the market and the goodwill of executives take their course, we end up with cases like Boeing. A US Senate investigation showed that the frantic race for profitability at Boeing, with a six-fold increase in dividends paid by the group in six years, was to the detriment of safety,” the former senior civil servant illustrated during his face-to-face with Patrick Martin in the Adenauer amphitheater, adding that “incentives are a good way to regulate the market economy.”
An approach that has the gift of making teeth grind on the Medef side. “We have conditionalities all around us. They are intrinsic. When there is research aid through the research tax credit, it is controlled in all directions. For apprenticeship aid, by definition, we have to deal with the recruitment of apprentices,” retorts Patrick Martin. In the ranks of the leading employers’ organization in France, the feeling is widely shared. “There are too many standards, too much green lobbying. Instead of slowing everything down, we must let companies grow,” grumbles the head of a family business in the South-East. In the absence of a government in France, the European Commission and its Green Deal are now crystallizing part of the resentment of the employers. “We are dying [des normes] in our country and in Europe. 850 new standards impacting businesses have been issued by the European Union during the last term of office,” asserts Patrick Martin, always outspoken.
“You can’t be poor and work”
The Medef representative is also up in arms about the measures put forward by the NFP, such as the increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros or the repeal of the pension reform, which he predicts will have “devastating effects”. In the corridors of the Impact France summer universities, a CEO from the mass retail sector warns of “overly sudden salary increases, which can have a direct impact on the sustainability of companies” in a “world where there is no growth”, echoing fears about a possible downturn in the economic situation. “We must of course continue efforts to increase salaries, by looking at the level of charges that weigh on them. And perhaps simplify so that salaries increase at the same speed gross and net”, he suggests.
Not far from there, Julia Faure considers that “you can’t be poor and work”. “Wage increases must therefore be made within a framework that ensures the competitiveness of companies, for example by supporting those for which such measures are more difficult to implement. But the large groups, which show profits and say they can’t increase them, are making fun of the world!” she says. Divergences of opinion that have not finished fueling the employers’ debate.
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