At the Medef, a reassuring… and inflexible terminal

Whether it's called the Medef summer university or meeting with entrepreneurs from France, the high mass of French employers always has its share of surprises... and announcements. The one that opened on Monday at the Longchamp racecourse, west of Paris, began with the exceptional and unprecedented intervention of the President of the Republic himself. Emmanuel Macron has indeed opened the festivities, with a recorded video broadcast on the big screen.

A few minutes to send a message of unity to the bosses. And to say and repeat four times how much he “needed” them, in particular to “win the battle for full employment”, the “most important” battle in his eyes. But also to fight against the deindustrialization that has affected France “for thirty years”, and for the pursuit of growth. Particularly in a demanding context marked by “geopolitical uncertainties”, technological transformations and climate change.

In his speech, the Head of State carefully avoids mentioning the angry subject: dissension has emerged in recent weeks around the burning issue of the CVAE, a production tax. While its abolition had, last year, been planned and voted in the finance law for the year 2024, it will be spread out until 2027, announced Bruno Le Maire last week. A reversal that makes employers cringe. Nevertheless, Emmanuel Macron said: "You know that you have a president and a government which, when it commits to things, does it". What trigger murmurs and yellow laughter in the assembly.

In the wake of the presidential speech, against a particularly well-chosen rock background (Don't Stop Me Now, by Queen), Patrick Martin, the new president of Medef, elected last July, stepped onto the stage , Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne in the front row. It was to her, therefore, that he addressed himself, saying: "We must not reverse the order of the factors and consider that our companies and our citizens are only adjustment variables", at the risk to "compromise the future with absurd decisions".

His new warning - the announcement of the postponement of the abolition of the CVAE would be a "bad signal" sent to companies, which "need this immediate abolition", he repeated - nevertheless did not have the expected return. Admittedly, Élisabeth Borne wanted to be reassuring, reaffirming without blinking that the government is conducting "a pro-business supply policy", which "will not change course" and will not include "no tax increase" - a few words that earned him warm applause. But it does not intend to return to the postponement of the abolition of the CVAE. This will disappear "before the end of the five-year term", she promised, "at the fastest possible pace", given the situation of our public finances. “We keep a little hope on the calendar”, we confide to the Medef.

Not enough to totally balm the hearts of French bosses on this subject, therefore. No more than on another thorny file: the surpluses of Unédic. The Prime Minister cast a chill by attributing the surpluses of the joint body that manages unemployment insurance to recent government reforms. Employers, for their part, believe that it is the companies that are at the origin of it and would like to see them translated into lower costs. Here again, Élisabeth Borne left entrepreneurs unsatisfied by declaring that part of the sums would be earmarked for training and support for job seekers - "That's called doing preventive work", she said. said.

The words coming from the top of the state, which were intended to be reassuring, more or less convinced the bosses present. “I have the impression that we do not live in the same country, is surprised Christophe Gamon, CEO of CGC Vector South, an audit company. If we listen to them, everything is fine.” He has a much more bitter observation: “We cannot find staff, bankers do not play the game, we are one of the most taxed countries in Europe…” The pill for postponing the abolition of the CVAE has difficult to pass: "Me, I know where to make them, the savings: they have only to reduce first the expenses of the State", launches it.

Jean-Luc Tuffier, the president of the French Building Federation Grand Paris, is more lenient: “It is good that Emmanuel Macron has spoken, not all presidents do. After that, there were no big surprises.” But with him, as with many others, the same story on production taxes: “Each time we reduce a tax, another one increases behind, we know…” “The CVAE does not will not be suppressed quite simply because our rulers do not have the means, they will not succeed”, laments another business leader who goes through this.

Administrative heaviness, imbroglio of standards, increase in wages or reindustrialisation… Under the cloudy sky of Paris, French bosses are reshaping the world. "The President of the Republic said he was counting on us, but we are also counting on them!" Says Jean-François Robergeau, boss of Louineau, a construction company. “We know that we cannot rest on our laurels, stay on our achievements,” he explains in reaction to the interventions of the President of the Republic and his Prime Minister. “But we also need to be given the means to innovate and hire,” he insists.

Despite the disappointments, certain symbols were appreciated, like the arrival of Olivia Grégoire alongside Élisabeth Borne. "She is the minister in charge of SMEs, it is a strong gesture and appreciated by our members, who are mostly small businesses", recalls Dominique Carlac'h, unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of Medef. So, despite the rain that finally came to the Longchamp racecourse at the end of the afternoon, business leaders clung to optimism.