Barely six weeks after he dissolved parliament and plunged France into political chaos, Emmanuel Macron has sought to reassure 40 of the world’s most influential businessmen that his country remains a good investment, reports The Guardian.
Guests at a sit-down lunch at the Élysée palace on Thursday included Tesla’s Elon Musk, Coca-Cola’s James Quincey, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, YouTube’s Neal Mohan and Eli Lilly’s David Ricks.
Joe Tsai of Alibaba, Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, Aditya and Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal and Lee Jae-yong of Samsung were also in attendance, as was Bernard Arnault of LVMH.
Macron called snap elections on 9 June after suffering a humiliating defeat in European parliamentary elections at the hands of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), and business leaders “are obviously paying close attention” to the ensuing uncertainty, an Élysée official said.
The RN won the first round of France’s snap general election, but a “republican front” and mass tactical voting returned a parliament dominated by three large blocs, none with anywhere near the 289 seats needed to form a government.
Macron said this week that the outgoing government would remain in a caretaker capacity until the end of the Olympics, and that parties would have to compromise if a stable majority capable of passing a budget and new legislation was to emerge.