Is it the dark side of the “Nation start-up”? France 2 broadcasts this Tuesday evening a new episode of its program “Cash Investigation”, entitled “Politics and business: dangerous links? ». Journalist Élise Menand investigated the bridges between these two universes and the limits of current legislation to avoid certain abuses. Pantouflage, minister who has become lobbyist, influential billionaire… 20 Minutes has selected three important moments of the show.
“Pantouflages” in a mess
Emmanuel Macron had promised during his first presidential campaign in 2017 to open the political world to civil society. But what happens to these officials after their political life? “Cash investigation” is interested in what is called “pantouflage”: the fact for a minister (or a senior state official) to join a private company. Thus, at the end of the first five -year term, “51 ministers had left their ministry and 26 of them occupied a function in the private private system,” said the program, citing in particular the names of Bruno Le Maire, Muriel Pénicaud, Olivier Véran, or Christophe Castaner. “It is twice as much as the ministers of François Hollande,” notes France 2.
Some are suspected of having used their ministry as “springboard” using their precious address book. Ten of them are now sitting on boards of directors, such as Edouard Philippe at Atos, who received 71,500 euros in 2022 “for having participated in around twenty meetings”. Florence Parly, the former Minister of the Armed Forces, combines seven boards of directors at the same time, says France Télévisions.
Cédric O, a lobbyist in Brussels
“Cash Investigation” is particularly interested in the case of Cédric O. The former secretary of state responsible for digital technology from 2020 to 2022 has become lobbyist for Mistral AI, French flagship of AI (artificial intelligence). According to France 2, the latter played his influence in Brussels during the period of negotiations on ACT, the European law which governs artificial intelligence on the continent, so that the text is more favorable to companies. At the risk of the conflict of interest? Cédric O was thus appointed in September 2023 by Elisabeth Borne to the generative AI Committee, directly attached to Matignon, during the period of negotiations on the Act. The program questions: “was France’s position was influenced by Mistral AI and what was the role of its co-founder, Cédric O? »»
The Pierre-Edouard Sterin case
France Télévisions also evokes another facet of these links between business and politics: businessmen who try to influence the debate, by taking an interest in Pierre-Edouard Sterin. This conservative billionaire does not hesitate to invest millions of euros in an attempt to bring the right and the extreme right to power. “Cash Investigation” returns to the “Périclès project” of the founder of “Smartbox”, revealed by the daily Humanity in October 2024.
Pierre-Edouard Sterin would have spent “150 million euros over ten years” to achieve his ends, targeting political figures or by subsidizing projects, such as the Politicae school. “There are rules: we do not have the right to give a political party each year more than 7,500 euros,” recalls Antoine Léaument. “If he ever trained the candidates, he financed equipment from them, if all that has happened by something other than a party, there is a subject,” adds the deputy LFI interviewed in the program. The billionaire, who had dried his summons to the National Assembly commission of inquiry, did not respond to the requests from France Télévisions.
