France’s largest employer federation, Medef, has elected telecoms and tech entrepreneur Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux as its new president — giving the technology sector an even higher profile as President Emmanuel Macron bets on it to spur the country’s economy, reports the Financial Times.
Mr Roux de Bézieux will take over as president of France’s main pro-business organisation from Pierre Gattaz, who is stepping down after five years. Medef said on Tuesday that Mr Roux de Bézieux was elected with 55.8 per cent of the vote over Alexandre Saubot, director-general of the Haulotte manufacturing group and chairman of the union of metallurgy industries.
Their contest had been presented as a battle between the old world of French industry and the tech sector that Mr Macron is cultivating as part of his ambitious reform agenda to cut unemployment.
Mr Roux de Bézieux told the Financial Times: “Medef must be transformed to be more representative of the diversity of our economic fabric throughout the country . . . Entrepreneurial initiatives need to be valued more.”
As well as lobbying, Medef plays an important role in running parts of France’s social security.
Having backed Mr Macron and his pro-business reforms, notably to liberalise the country’s dysfunctional jobs market, the federation now faces a challenge to stay relevant at a time when Mr Macron wants to overhaul the social security system.