Macron woos top foreign business chiefs after political chaos

Barely six weeks after he dissolved parliament and plunged France into political chaos, Emmanuel Macron has sought to reassure 40 of the world’s most influential businessmen that his country remains a good investment.

Guests at a sit-down lunch at the Élysée palace on Thursday included Tesla’s Elon Musk, Coca-Cola’s James Quincey, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, YouTube’s Neal Mohan and Eli Lilly’s David Ricks.

Joe Tsai of Alibaba, Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, Aditya and Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal and Lee Jae-yong of Samsung were also in attendance, as was Bernard Arnault of LVMH.

Macron called snap elections on 9 June after suffering a humiliating defeat in European parliamentary elections at the hands of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), and business leaders “are obviously paying close attention” to the ensuing uncertainty, an Élysée official said.

The RN won the first round of France’s snap general election, but a “republican front” and mass tactical voting returned a parliament dominated by three large blocs, none with anywhere near the 289 seats needed to form a government.

Macron said this week that the outgoing government would remain in a caretaker capacity until the end of the Olympics, and that parties would have to compromise if a stable majority capable of passing a budget and new legislation was to emerge.

“Of course this event will be a bit special, after the political events of the past few weeks,” the Macron adviser said last week. “The goal will be mainly to explain to foreign chief executives the president’s actions, particularly the dissolution.

“For foreign investors, what matters is the policy that’s been carried out, continuity and stability, providing certainty. The president will seek to reassure the CEOs attending about the choices he made.”

Macron’s centrist, pro-business camp warned repeatedly during the election that victory for either the RN or the New Popular Front, dominated by the radical left France Unbowed (LFI), would damage France’s economic stability and deter foreign direct investment.

Both groups plan to increase public spending significantly, including boosting the minimum wage, and raise corporate taxes. Under Macron, France has topped the European foreign direct investment (FDI) league for five years running, ahead of Germany and Britain.

Earlier this year. before his annual “Choose France” summit, the president’s office announced €15bn (£12.6bn) of new foreign investment in 56 projects, including €4bn from Microsoft, €1.2bn from Amazon and €1bn each from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

None of those investments had so far been cancelled or paused, the Élysée adviser said, adding that no announcements would be made after the lunch, which was designed to capitalise on the “positive ambience” generated by the Olympic Games.

Data from France’s statistics office on Thursday, however, showed that French industry morale slumped unexpectedly in July. Laurent Favre, the CEO of the car parts supplier Opmobility, said earlier this week that manufacturers liked stability.

“When we change policy every three minutes, it’s never good,” he said. “For industry, the lack of visibility means stress and, effectively, no investment.”