At the Medef summer universities, employers are firing broadsides at the left, accusing them of causing "chaos"

A trap on center court. The 2025 edition of the Ref (Meeting of French Entrepreneurs), held in Paris at the private Roland-Garros stadium, concluded with a "grand oral" of party leaders, invited to debate the future of France.

A debate, or rather an indictment, concerning the three left-wing representatives invited, the communist Fabien Roussel, the ecologist Marine Tondelier and the rebellious Manuel Bompard (Olivier Faure declined, retained at the PS summer universities). A few hours earlier, the employers had learnedly applauded the austerity catechism of François Bayrou, whose diagnosis is " totally shared" by the Medef, in the words of its president Patrick Martin.

So, of course, the left wasn't at the party. In the role of the bosses' not-so-slick bloodhound, BFM's star journalist Apolline de Malherbe is supposed to moderate the debate but challenges it thus: "What is your responsibility in the chaos? I'm willing to accept that we're responsible for everything, but as far as I know, environmentalists haven't been in the Élysée Palace, the Prime Minister's office, or the government since 2017 ," Marine Tondelier prefers to laugh, drawing boos when she raises the question of making aid to businesses conditional on social and environmental objectives, then that of reducing the working week.

The same goes for Manuel Bompard, who came to denounce "Emmanuel Macron's supply-side policy, which is leading us into a wall," in front of those who have benefited the most, without ever really trickling down. Horrified silence when Fabien Roussel, in contrast to the planned cuts, pleads for a 500 billion euro stimulus plan over 5 years to pursue an ambitious recovery policy.

Demand over supply. The Communist also calls for "more clarity" in business aid, which he calls for to be redirected more towards SMEs and VSEs. " You need planning and visibility! " he challenges the room.

The debate quickly turned to the 2026 budget. Gabriel Attal, president of Renaissance, and Bruno Retailleau, president of LR, the only guests to have announced their vote of confidence in the Prime Minister, became the salesmen, to the applause of the assembly of entrepreneurs.

The Minister of the Interior is raising the spectre of a " statist social system " and wants to " cap aid to make work more of an incentive than welfare. " " We need a budget that breaks with the 1945 economic model; we can't be operating in 2025 with the 1945 economic model ," says Gabriel Attal, who is behind a decree reforming unemployment insurance to tighten compensation conditions.

National Rally President Jordan Bardella, for his part, is on a mission to seduce. Business leaders are not immune to the charms of the ambitious RN candidate, whose leanings are more liberal than those of Marine Le Pen. So he's trying to take the government to the right by calling for the elimination of environmental standards stemming from the European Green Deal: " There has been no supply-side policy since 2017, because we haven't lifted the standards and administrative obstacles that weigh on businesses ," he dares to say.

The paradox of a man who, at least in front of the Medef (French employers' association), seems to share François Bayrou's assessment and political orientations, while claiming to be his primary opponent. The whole thing has the air of a presidential debate ahead of its time. Fortunately, employers are not the only ones with the right to vote.