France's National Rally Gains Popularity but Struggles with Business Leaders

Challenges for National Rally in Business Engagement

By Elizabeth Pineau, Mathieu Rosemain and Leigh Thomas

PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - France's National Rally has yet to win over the business elite, who fret over its shifting economic positions and are wary of engaging with a far-right party many still regard as toxic, according to over a dozen sources.

Little more than 14 months before a presidential election, polls indicate party leaders Jordan Bardella or Marine Le Pen have a solid shot at power after a decades-long march from fringe movement to mainstream force.

Economic Ambiguities and Business Concerns

But despite growing appeal among once-wary voters, CEOs, founders, business group heads, lawmakers and party officials interviewed by Reuters say the nationalist, anti-immigrant party has made little headway with France's economic establishment.

Reactions from Business Leaders

Executives cite evolving stances on issues from tax to pensions, a lack of clarity on corporate taxation, unfunded commitments and divergent economic currents within the party leadership — all of which leave them questioning what the National Rally (RN) actually stands for.

Political Dynamics and Future Outlook

The party's economic priorities centre on boosting purchasing power through tax cuts, notably on energy, reducing public spending and France's EU budget contribution, and restructuring welfare to prioritise French citizens.

"I am unable to tell you at this very moment what the economic doctrine of the National Rally is," Patrick Martin, who leads the MEDEF business lobby, told reporters last month.

The absence of detailed plans threatens to become an electoral hurdle if the conservative voters that RN is courting begin to doubt its ability to run the EU's No. 2 economy.

DISCREET OVERTURES

A Bardella aide told Reuters the party has met with CEOs from "half of the CAC 40" blue-chip stock index. But Bardella declined to name any when pressed by Reuters, saying only that he and Le Pen regularly meet leaders from small firms to major companies.

"The message we give them is that the state cannot do everything and that the country's recovery has to involve jumpstarting growth," Bardella said.

Among the few top CEOs who have publicly acknowledged that the party cannot be ignored, Carrefour head Alexandre Bompard and TotalEnergies chief Patrick Pouyanné said it was up to business federations to act as interlocutors. Martin, whose federation meets regularly with most other parties, said his group was in no hurry.

"Are we being proactive in seeking contact with the RN? No. But at some point, if they want to talk to us, we will talk to them," he said, noting the RN's shifting position on various tax policies as a particular issue of concern.

The RN did not respond to a request for comment.

Even natural conservative allies remain discreet. Billionaires Vincent Bolloré and Pierre-Edouard Sterin, known for backing right-wing causes, have not publicly aligned with the RN.

Before the RN emerged as the biggest parliamentary party following a snap 2024 election, Le Pen had begun widening contacts with executives, said Sophie de Menthon, head of the right-leaning ETHIC business network and close to Le Pen.

Smaller firms - whose bosses often feel overlooked by political powers - are more receptive, while multinationals that have scrutinised the RN economic platform are more cautious, said one executive who has facilitated some of the few CEO meetings with party leaders that have taken place.

France's global financial firms have outright refused meetings with RN leadership, three sources said, declining to name specific companies.

ONE PARTY, TWO PROGRAMMES?

Business leaders say they struggle to interpret the RN's economic priorities since it ran in 2024 on pledges to roll back a retirement-age hike and increase wages, and they see clear divisions at the top.

"You still have two economic programmes - Marine Le Pen's and Jordan Bardella's," said the CEO of a large French company. "One (Bardella) leans free-market, the other Socialist-Communist," he said, adding the party base aligned more with Le Pen's left-tinged populism.

That ambiguity initially helped the RN broaden its support, but has now become a liability as the party seeks to present itself as a credible government-in-waiting, three executives said.

Questions over who will actually run in 2027 complicate the calculus for CEOs. Le Pen is fighting for her political future as she appeals a five-year ineligibility sentence for misusing EU funds. If upheld this summer, she says Bardella will run.

Business leaders also flag budgets that do not seem to tally and worry about the party's voting record. Much of RN's proposed cuts come from tightening immigrants' access to welfare benefits - but economists say those savings fall short of funding the party's platform.

And Budget Minister Amélie de Montchalin regularly notes that RN lawmakers backed tax hikes on big companies worth nearly 34 billion euros ($40.5 billion) when the 2026 budget came before parliament.

RN lawmakers have also wavered on a wealth tax on assets over 100 million euros championed by the left, abstaining last February before voting against it in October.

A senior RN lawmaker who declined to be named said the party was discussing a 3% budget-deficit "golden rule" to signal fiscal discipline to executives and international investors.

Bardella says the party will soon focus on cutting regulations that he says hold businesses back.

OPENING FOR RIVALS

With presidential campaigns not expected to kick off in earnest until later this year, the RN still has time to refine its economic programme. But rivals are already seeking to capitalise.

The Republicans, the established centre-right party also targeting conservative voters, is honing business-friendly proposals to cut France's high labour costs.

"As Republicans, we do not need to justify contacts in the business world," said Republican lawmaker Véronique Louwagie. "We have exchanges and get feedback on their concerns daily."

($1 = 0.8393 euros)

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Mathieu Rosemain and Leigh Thomas, additional reporting by Michel Rose and Juliette Jabkhiro; writing by Leigh Thomas, Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Ros Russell)