Why French billionaire Bernard Arnault has sided with Trump in tariff war
At the recent LVMH annual meeting in Paris, shareholders of the luxury goods group granted its 76-year-old billionaire boss Bernard Arnault the right to continue at the helm until the age of 85. The veteran businessman seized the opportunity to proclaim a stance that was anti-European and closely aligned with the position of US tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk. In particular, the group's boss described the European Union as a “bureaucratic” body devoted to “issuing regulations”. These comments by Arnault, one of the richest people on the planet, mark the culmination of a political evolution on his part, and come as the luxury empire begins to show signs of faltering. Romaric Godin reports.
“The“The European Union is a bureaucratic power that spends its time issuing regulations.” This remark was uttered not by Donald Trump’s entourage nor by European populists, but by billionaire French businessman Bernard Arnault. At the recent shareholders' meeting in Paris of luxury goods group LVMH, its CEO and France’s richest man struck a note that is at odds with prevailing opinion on this side of the Atlantic.
