Emmanuel Macron, money and his well-heeled backers

“I'm“I'm not in favour of the power of money overriding politics.” Before finally choosing to support Emmanuel Macron, the veteran centrist politician François Bayrou had let rip about the former economy minister, the founder of En Marche! and now independent candidate in the French presidential election. He judged the 39-year-old ex-civil servant to be “unqualified” to become president of the fifth global economic power, while the closeness of the former merchant banker to the business world caused him grave concern. “Behind Emmanuel Macron,” he proclaimed, “there are major financial interests that are incompatible with the impartiality demanded by public office.”

Bayrou, the mayor of Pau in south-west France, had certainly not minced his words about someone he saw as a candidate “of the forces of money”, whose teams boasted of having “raised, in the terminology of finance and the stock exchange, millions of euros” for the campaign. “It's not the way I see politics,” said Bayrou, who has always been horrified by the mixing of the public sphere and private interests.

In exchange for a major new law on morality in public life, François Bayrou has subsequently swallowed his criticism. But Macron's rivals in the battle for the Elysée have not. They have continually highlighted his unusual career trajectory for a politician – he was rapporteur on the Commission presided over by economist Jacques Attali under President Nicolas Sarkozy, a merchant banker then minister for the economy – and his closeness to the world of business.

The radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon calls Macron “the young banker”. The Socialist Party candidate Benoît Hamon has challenged his rival to publish the list of his donors and to reject those that have given more than 2,500 euros (a third of the legal donation limit of 7,500 euros) if those donors refuse to waive their anonymity. This was a deliberate dig by Hamon at Macron who is suspected by some on the Left of being under the influence of “economic powers, bankers, private lobbies, those who undo election manifestos just when you come to power”. Marine Le Pen, the far-right Front National (FN) candidate, is for her part already dreaming of an explosive showdown in the second round of the election with “the candidate for globalism and ultra-liberalism” backed by “financial powers and their media representatives”.

Just seven weeks from the first round of the presidential election these questions are bogging down Macron's campaign. The risk to Macron, who has just presented his policy programme, is clear: that of being portrayed as the candidate for the media, wealthy people, the “oligarchy”, the so-called “Circle of Reason” (a reference to a now defunct think-tank influential in the 1980s and 1990s) or a bit of all of them. The fear is also that he will be seen as a rootless, manufactured candidate who – according to the far right – spent the equivalent of a minimum wage “every day” between 2010 and 2012 when he was a merchant banker at Rothschild.

“There's a lot of lurid stories, grandstanding, lies and unpleasantness.” That is the view of Christian Dargnat a banker who was formerly in charge of the asset management branch at BNP Paribas bank and who, since En March! was launched in April 2016, has been in charge of fund raising for the campaign. He met Mediapart at En Marche!'s headquarters in Paris's 15th arrondissement.

Macron's team has gone into riposte mode. “Those aren't innocent words,” says Dargnat, sitting in the press room where there is a polystyrene 'EM!' decoration. “Should people who have worked at Rothschild be banned from standing in an election? All of this is playing the populists' game,” he says. Next to him Sylvain Fort, who is head of communications, adds: “The theory of a plot by financiers in top hats and a cigar in hand trying to take over the world is alive and kicking! People are systemically recycling phraseology against Emmanuel Macron that is worthy of the extreme right, that's not harmless.” His comments target the FN but also a phrase used by former culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, a Hamon supporter, who described Macron as a “candidate of major financial capitalism”.

For months En Marche! has stuck to the same line on the issue of money. They point out that it is a new movement and that as yet it has no elected Parliamentarians and thus does not yet benefit from the public funding that established parties in France get. It is therefore down to Macron's team, they say, to go out and find the millions of euros that a campaign costs, with its rallies, staff, online presence and leaflets. So far the Macron campaign has already raised 8 million euros; that is half the legal spending limit allowed for the first round of a presidential election. That level of fund raising is unprecedented for a brand new party.

The operation is gathering in momentum, too. In the two months since January the campaign has netted 2.7 million euros. According to Christian Dargnat there have been 30,000 donors so far. Half of them have given under 50 euros each, but 160 have donated more than 5,000 euros each. Between them these generous patrons have provided a tenth of all the money received. They have been thanked with a handwritten letter from Macron himself, a privilege reserved for anyone who gives more than 3,000 euros. But there is no question of reviving the 'bling bling' memories of the 2007 campaign when the 'Premier Cercle' of wealthy Nicolas Sarkozy backers met for a celebration at the exclusive Fouquet's restaurant on the Champs-Elysées in Paris after the latter's victory. “The Premier Cercle was a colossal mistake, we'd never organise a major gathering of that type,” says Dargnat.

However, while he may not organise meetings of such donors, the banker does all he needs to to look after them, with follow-up messages and one-to-ones. Some contributions have even come from foreign donors, perhaps ten or so in total, says Dargnat. Unlike the defeated right-wing primary candidate Alain Juppé, who decided after a few weeks of campaigning to return such contributions, the Macron campaign is not rejecting them except “as a precaution, if there is the slightest doubt” about the origin of the money. That has indeed happened on a few occasions and Dargnat has politely returned the money. But he does not want to give names or nationalities of those involved so as not to “cast scorn” on them.

To make a good impression, Emmanuel Macron has encouraged his donors to identify themselves publicly. In practice he knows very well that no one, or practically no one, will do this. When pressed to reveal the names of his supporters he invokes tax confidentiality. “I can't 'out' people who give to me because it's against the law. It would be betraying personal secrets,” he said on the Complément d’enquête programme on France 2 television last December.

But don't Benoît Hamon and the treasurer of the Socialist Party (PS) have a point when they ask for more transparency? Christian Dargnat brushes aside such claims. “What does that mean? That,at over 2,500 euros, money is unhealthy? That this money is dirty? Incidentally, the PS receives 24 million euros in public subsidies [editor's note, they are calculated on the number of Parliamentarians a party has and its performance at Parliamentary elections], without counting the money from the [PS] primary,” he says. “It's therefore easy for them to set themselves up as being virtuous. When you're a billionaire, it's easy to say that money doesn't interest you...”

Fund-raising dinners

Macron's team is fond of saying that they have no money and that they operate in a thrifty way. “We're as transparent as the law demands,” they say. “It's crazy, we are criticised for respecting a law on political financing which had been brought in to replace briefcases of notes, African cash and false billing,” they argue, referring to past scandals about election funding in France. Their argument has merit but it is also a little easy: that revealing the names as is done in the United States would deter donors. “Especially in France where culturally people don't want to signpost their political colours,” says a friend of Macron.

In recent months those around Macron have veered between seeking to defuse the criticism and a certain suspicion. They know that as the presidential election gets closer their candidate's background is both an advantage – his supporters like the idea that he worked in the private sector and that he has not enriched himself through politics, a criticism they readily level at elected representatives – and a handicap.

When giving a speech Macron exhibits a relaxed view towards money, and given his background it would be impossible not to. But in his book 'Révolution' he defends himself against any suggestion that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. “My family's story is that of an ascent in the French provinces, in the Hautes-Pyrénées [in south-west France] and Picardy [northern France],” he writes. He insists he has no regrets about his banking career. “I have been widely criticised over [those years] as those who don't know that world have lurid ideas about what is plotted there ... I neither share the exaltation of those who boast of it as the unsurpassable lifestyle of our times, nor the bitter criticism of those who regard it as the leprosy of money and the exploitation of man by man.” He says he is proud to have worked at the bank, describing them as four years that allowed him to “master” what he calls the “grammar of business”.

While the former deputy chief of staff at the Elysée under President François Hollande presents himself as an outsider to the political “system”, he does not seek to deny his closeness to the business world. Macron is on first name terms with major bosses such as the founder of he Free telecoms group, Xavier Niel (plus another owner of Le Monde, Pierre Bergé) and numerous figures in the French digital world. The former number two to Patrick Drahi at another major telecom player SFR, Bernard Mourad, is part of Macron's inner circle. Didier Casas, the deputy managing director at the telecoms arm of French group Bouygues, who is on extended leave from the firm, is drawing up his political programme. Bernard Spitz, who is head of France's insurance federation, also runs Les Gracques, a liberal think tank of whom Macron is a protégé. The head of consultants McKinsey France is a friend. One could easily go on.

Macron accepts the label of “liberal” and dreams of “young French people who have a desire to become billionaires”. He also celebrates “talent”, starting with his own, which he considers to be not inconsiderable. On February 21st this year he used this to justify his plans to reduce wealth tax and tax on capital when he addressed two thousand French expatriates at Central Hall in London. “In football, in rugby, in science, in the world of finance, in business, you need exceptional people,” Macro said. “You don't need only that, and everyone has their place, but you do need formidably talented people. So you must love success. If you don't like success, successful people are going to look elsewhere. And that's not good for your economy.” It was a speech that could have come from the flashy years of businessman-politician Bernard Tapie.

On that evening in the UK capital Macron was preaching to the converted: students, employees of start-up companies, entrepreneurs and City traders. London, where more than 200,000 French people live, has become an important hub for the funding of Macron's political venture.

For months Christian Dargnat has been discreetly making trips to the city to meet donors. Macron himself has gone there three times. The heads of the Macron network in situ are Ygal el-Harrar, a financier at Exane (a subsidiary of bank BNP-Paribas) and Albin Serviant who is boss of the website appartager.com and a web entrepreneur who is on the right politically and who is one of the coordinators of the official French Tech London hub. He also organises dinners for select people in his private club French Connect, where annual membership costs 700 to 1,200 euros a year.

Helped by other entrepreneurs, Serviant and el-Harrar have been using their contacts since the end of last summer to help raise money. Towards the end of February Emmanuel Macron took part in three fund-raising events in two days in London, and in total 120 donors were present. The team picked up more than 200,000 euros in donations in all.

Private gatherings with a chance to meet Macron in the flesh are not the most efficient way of collecting money with the elegance and refinement that befits the wealthy. On average, since the spring of 2016 the candidate has taken part in an “event” every ten days or so. “About 20 lunches or dinners with him present,” confirms Dargnat. Most have taken place in Paris. Some have been held in the provinces but these have “not always lived up to our expectations” admits the banker. There was also a gathering at Uccle, a well-heeled suburb of Brussels, the favourite residence of French tax exiles, at the invitation of Marc Grosman, who founded the men's fashion label Celio.

During a visit by Emmanuel Macron to North America before Christmas, leading figures from the French community in New York gathered at the restaurant 'Benoît', run by celebrated French chef Alain Ducasse. On that occasion the former centre-right minister Renaud Dutreil, ex-CEO of the American branch of the luxury goods group LVMH run by billionaire Bernard Arnault, opened up his contacts book. “They were all there: artists, lawyers, actors and people from fashion and retail. The French community in New York is not just made up of financiers,” says Dutreil, who has set up the group 'La Droite avec Macron' ('The Right for Macron'). The financier Christian Déséglise, global head of central banks at HSBC and a professor at Columbia University, helped with the event.

With the dinners the ritual is more or less the same each time. The hosts invite their friends, acquaintances and relatives to a “conference debate” with Emmanuel Macron. They do not always all know each other. “There is a sort of natural selection over admission,” says Mathieu Laine, a lobbyist and liberal essayist who organised a dinner in Paris several months ago. “If you're invited to this kind of meeting it's because you're likely to give quite a lot. They are mostly people from the world of business, senior executives, entrepreneurs, merchant bankers, professionals.” One participant from Paris, who wanted to stay anonymous because his friends who organised the dinner asked him to, recalls a “cosy” atmosphere with champagne, wild peace juice and upscale food.

Christian Dargnat, sometimes helped by one of his deputies, opens the evening by speaking about the movement and the need to raise money. He always points out that donations to political parties attract tax relief of 66%. People's need for discretion is also respected.

“We organise these events at private homes for reasons of confidentiality,” says Christian Dargnat. “At a restaurant people who are curious could be looking in through the window. And it doesn't cost anything at a private house except when the host asks me to help out with the petits fours!” Then Emmanuel Macron makes an entrance. He is very at ease in this type of society atmosphere, puts on a show and replies to questions. “He's incredible, he engages with you,” says another participant who is still under the presidential candidate's charm. “Everyone's charmed,” says a former Sarkozy supporter, who nonetheless finds Macron's tax policies too timid.

Earnings of 2.9 million euros at Rothschild between 2009 and May 2012

One person who attended one of these very private Paris gatherings recently wrote about it on their blog. We have to content ourselves with what she wrote, as the woman declined to reply to Mediapart's messages. “In this sumptuous apartment with subdued lighting, the great Macron is in the process of giving a private performance of high quality,” she writes. “The guests are generally in the AB+ social category, chic, in their fifties and above, the women in Chanel jackets and the men have shiny shoes. They are delighted and hand out welcoming smiles by the shovel load. People at the gathering are on cloud nine and drinking good wine.”

The evening appears to have had its funny episodes too. “When Emmanuel recalls in the course of a sentence that he is a socialist and that he will as a priority tax better-off pensioners it rather has the effect of coitus interruptus, En Marche with a stone in the Berluti [shoe], one's not going to get very far, some then say,” she writes, using a play on the words of Macron's organisation En Marche!, which means “on the move”. She adds: “It's the hilarious moment of the evening.”

Macron's team points out that this fund-raising approach doesn't work every time, and that not everyone gives. Some just hand over ten euros, which does not even cover the cost of their drinks. But some evenings have brought in up to 100,000 euros. “I showed my political colours at my event,” admits one host. “It wasn't an evening for curious society people nor a charity gala. Only 4% of guests don't donate.”

In view of the amounts involved it is difficult not to think of the potential risks in mixing financial and political interests. If Macron is elected on May 7th, could he be a president under the influence of others? “I can't know what's in people's heads,” replies Christian Dargnat. “Do they want to have influence, to have a direct relationship? What I do know is that lots do it out of generosity and enthusiasm.”

Under party funding rules, since the launch of En Marche! an individual could have donated a maximum of 19,600 euros in their name; 7,500 euros to the party before December 31st, 2016, the same sum since then, plus 4,600 euros as a donation to the candidate himself. “Very few donors are in that situation and in any case each one represents just 0.2% of the current volume of donations,” says Dargnat. Others close to the candidate advance the same arguments. “We're in a well-calibrated system, far removed from the abuses that occur in the United States,” says Renaud Dutreil. “Seven thousand five hundred euros, that's what a pharmacist in Montélimar [in the south-east of France] gives to the UMP [the predecessor to the current mainstream right-wing party Les Républicains]. It's too low a sum to influence a decision.”

However, some of the the new movement's practices are surprising. Christian Dargnat explains that at the end of 2016 he had paid in “four or five cheques” that had been received earlier in that year when Emmanuel Macron was still economy minister under President François Hollande. These cheques had been put to one side to avoid any conflict of interest, knowing that the activities of the signatories could be “influenced by the minister's decisions”. But should they not have been ripped up rather than put to one side?

In fact the former Rothschild banker's attempts at transparency have become something of a millstone. Each detail that is divulged brings forth fresh suspicions, and each effort to give details seems to call for more. In terms of disclosing his personal wealth “we're reaching the limits of the exercise” say his entourage. “Of all the candidates Emmanuel Macron is the most transparent and that is rebounding on him,” they say. That is true, but that is because he has not revealed everything about himself.

In 2014 he had barely been appointed as economy minister when he tried to kill off lurid stories about his supposed wealth by proactively giving some figures to L'Express magazine. Yes, he had indeed earned a good living at Rothschild but no, he did not pay wealth tax. Three months later, however, when he put his complete personal wealth and financial interests declaration online it raised two questions. The first was how he could escape wealth tax – whose threshold is fixed at 1.3 million euros per household – with a Paris flat worth 935,000 euros among his assets, his wife's home at Le Touquet in northern France and with his total income at Rothschild between 2009 and May 2012 having totalled 2.9 million euros? Above all, how could he explain how his net worth was stuck below 200,000 euros once his loans were deducted?

It was Mediapart and investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné and Mediapart who answered the first question in May 2016: after the tax authorities had revalued the house at Le Touquet to its correct value (1.4 million euros), Emmanuel Macron did indeed have to pay wealth tax for the years 2013 and 2014. After the tax authorities had caught up with them Macron and his wife Brigitte Trogneux ended up in September 2015 paying more than 6,000 euros in tax owed. “I did not under-value my assets with a view to escaping wealth tax, nor set up tax measures to avoid this tax,” responded Emmanuel Macron as he revealed on Facebook the amount he had paid in wealth tax to the nearest euro.

Since then the Paris flat has been sold. But the second question, reawakened by his declaration of assets in October 2016, continues to dog the candidate more than ever. For this time he has posted a difference of barely 65,000 euros between his assets (savings investments, bank accounts and so on) and his liabilities (a loan of 250,000 euros which is still being paid off). “The vanished Rothschild millions” was the headline in L'Obs weekly news magazine, which wondered how the former banker could have spent so much money. “Why [Macron's] asset declaration raises questions” was the line taken by Le Monde.

“We're now being told, that he lacks money,” Macron's entourage team says today with some irritation. “Some are trying to start the idea that the money has been hidden.” When pressed his team point out that Macron has had to pay his creditors, his expenses, wealth tax and so on. They admit that Macron “spent more than saved” during his Rothschild years. But his team dismiss claims by the vice-president of the far-right Front National, Florian Philippot, that Macron must have spent the equivalent of the minimum wage “every day” while working as a banker to have got through that amount of money. “That's false, that's for sure,” they say.

In fact, to measure his exact lifestyle one would need to know all the amounts paid in tax, which for 2012, for example, would doubtless come to several hundreds of thousands of euros. Yet Macron's team refuses to take transparency that far, which is further than the law obliges them to go. “If the charge that people want to level against Emmanuel Macron is that at the age of 35 he had a taste for spending his money, there's nothing reprehensible about that,” says Christian Dargnat. He says that the former banker had accepted that he would get “poorer” by entering politics, and that he had even paid to quit his status as a public servant.

Dargnat is targeting the Front National and François Fillon when he adds: “We've had enough of transparency being the main argument of those who are totally opaque.” But the pressure is only likely to continue. A third declaration of personal assets, this time in his capacity as a presidential candidate, will be published soon.

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The French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter