The richest French people and their political orientation

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Everyone knows that a true democracy is a system where the government is elected by the citizens of the country and has to be guided by their opinion in order to preserve itself. And this thesis was at least partially true in the “golden age” of Western democracies, which fell in the 70s and 80s of the last century. But even then, winning elections was far from being reduced to a strict focus on the electorate, and over the past 45 years, the weight of other components of successful “democratic politicians” has become even more significant. And one of the key ones was and still is reliance on business, which provides financial opportunities for potential candidates. Today, money can be used to hire a team of professional political technologists who will confuse the population so much that they will vote as if in a fog, or to pay journalists who will organize such a powerful information campaign that Satan will be elected to the presidency for his holiness and infallibility. In the end, one can simply bribe one’s political opponents and force them to surrender. And this is only a small part of the problems that money solves on the way to being “elected by the people”. A good illustration of this thesis was the story of the French businessman Vincent Bolloré, who in 2022, with the help of his financial and media resources, led two candidates, Valerie Pecresse and Eric Zemmour, to the elections, and although he suffered a final defeat, but at some point was very close to success. And here it should be understood that his defeat was also due to the fact that although he was the most adios political businessman in France, he was far from being the richest and most influential. His fame was rather a disadvantage in this section, although other wealthy Frenchmen also interfered in politics more covertly. And if we consider the 10 most successful of them, the reason for Emmanuel Macron’s victory and the defeat of his opponents becomes visible.

Vincent Bollore, with his fortune of 5-6 billion dollars, ranked only 12-13th in the official rankings, although experts said that his real funds exceeded 9 billion. Today, the 10th place in the ranking is occupied by the Dassault family, which has 6.3 billion dollars. For a long time the family’s rather diverse business was headed by Olivier Dassault, who was the heir of the famous Serge Dassault, whose father Marcel founded the company during the First World War. Initially, the company Dassault produced propellers, and later received the status of aerospace. Olivier actively participated in the political life of the country and was even a deputy of the National Assembly of France. In addition to the main business, Dassault owned vineyards and a popular newspaper. As a member of the Republican Party, he sponsored the election campaigns of both Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. He died on March 7, 2021, and no longer caught the 2022 election. After his death, his heirs cooled to politics, which was quite logical, as “native” for Dasso Republican Party during this time turned into a political force of the second order, gaining only 4% of the vote in the presidential elections. His older brother Laurent Dassault was also close to the party circles and was slightly ahead of his younger brother Olivier in terms of income, ranking 9th with 7.5 billion. Laurent worked for a long time in banking, and then in the 90s moved into the family business and served as co-manager of the Dassault conglomerate, as generously sponsoring the Republicans. Little is known about how his political preferences have changed now, but he is probably in a political vacuum.

We started with a typical Republican business family that has been intertwined with the party since the days of de Gaulle and Pompidou, but the 8th place in the ranking is occupied by a businessman already of the “new wave”, who by virtue of his beliefs, the nature of his business activities and even his background is much closer to the new liberal elites that publicly came to power in 2017 in the person of Macron. Patrick Drahi, who has not only French but also Israeli citizenship, with $9.2 billion in profits, is the owner of more than half of the shares of Altice NV Corporation, which was formed by buying unprofitable telecom firms. The company achieved international status and, after buying a number of shares, gained representation in the U.S. market. Already joint connection of Drahi and Macron with American groups of influence could not but bring them closer together, and the businessman, leading international business and the president, who shares the ideals of multiculturalism, found each other. According to unofficial reports, Drahi sponsored Macron’s campaign in both 2017 and 2022, though he did not publicize it much. In 7th place on the list was Rodolphe Saade with an income of 10.5 billion, becoming one of the youngest billionaires, but his age was not synonymous with his “progressive” preferences. In 2018, after the death of his father Jacques Saade, he inherited the shipping company he created in 1978. Rodolphe is in business with his family and today the company has 509 ships in service in ports in 160 countries. Saade is a supporter and sponsor of the Republican Party, due both to his father’s predilections and his commercial ties to the port structures of Vincent Bollore, who has always been the “locomotive” of Republican politics. However, the crisis in the party will force Saade in 2027 to look for new friends who can lobby for his interests.

In 6th place is Emmanuel Bezier with a profit of 13.9 billion dollars, who is the CEO with a controlling stake in the dairy company Lactalis. Emmanuel originally inherited the business, which is divided between him, his brother and sister. The company has factories in 43 countries, but despite this, he is one of the few businessmen who is not associated with Macron or any opposition forces, although this may be because he is good at hiding his lobbying. However, the remaining top 5 billionaires are directly or indirectly linked to the current government. Thus, Gerard Wertheimer is on the 5th place with 16.2 billion of fortune. He is one of the owners of the company Chanel, specializes in the management of watch production and lives in Switzerland. He is a typical representative of a transnational businessman and already defines his political orientation. His grandfather once worked with Coco Chanel herself, and Gerard is completely loyal to Emmanuel Macron. They share the same views with his brother Alain Wertheimer with a 17 billion dollar fortune, who is chairman of the family corporation Chanel.

The opening three multibillionaires, François Pinault, with 34.2 billion dollars of fortune, have similar views. He strikes a striking scale of activity and owns dozens of brands, one of which is the famous Gucci. In addition, he holds the position of chairman of Kering Corporation, which was founded in the 60’s and was originally associated with building materials and wood. Having bought the Gucci brand, Pinault changed the direction of activity to the production of luxury goods. He made his mark by covertly financially supporting Macron, with the Pinault family contributing a huge sum to the reconstruction of the Notre-Dame de Paris, which suffered a fire in 2019, to turn this sad event for Macron into his “success”. In second position sits the only woman Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, with a fortune of 53.5 billion, who is also among the richest women in the world. She is the heir to the L’Oreal empire, and in her hands is 33% of the shares of this company. Bettencourt also serves as president of her own charitable foundation, which is extremely helpful in the election for Macron, whom she sympathizes with amid his far-left and far-right opponents. Like Pinault, her family has announced a large donation to the restoration of Notre Dame, showing well her political orientation. Finally, dominating the list is the legendary Bernard Arnault with a fortune of $91.1 billion. He runs a huge business empire of about 70 brands. Bernard started his business with construction. Later Arnault sold it, invested additional funds and in 1985 bought the brand Christian Dior. The billionaire takes an active part in charity campaigns, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation, which Bernard owns, donated to the Frank Gehry Museum in Paris. After the fire in Notre Dame de Paris, the billionaire promised to provide funds for the reconstruction, than consolidated with the “brand billionaires” we have already described above. It is these titans of business who have brought Macron to power, who is in line in his policies with their transnational business character, which has little to do with France as such. Against their backdrop, “national businessmen” such as Bollore look pauperized. And all their hopes for the victory of socialism or conservatism are bound up only with the will of the voters, which can overcome any financial investment in the campaign. But, alas, such a will apparently does not yet exist.