After his long press conference on Tuesday evening and the council of ministers, Emmanuel Macron flew to Switzerland this Wednesday, heading to the Davos Forum. An after-sales service for its reforms, for big bosses from all over the world, gathered every year for 54 years in the Alpine resort of Graubünden. And the opportunity to repeat to foreign investors that they are welcomed with open arms in France, but also to set an ambitious course for Europe.
In his speech in the plenary room of the Congress center, in front of some 1,500 people, the French president – who had not returned there since 2018 – recalled the reforms accomplished in six years (tax cuts of 60 billion euros, relaxed labor market…) and the course set the night before on television. The president of the “start-up nation” did not shy away from his pleasure, recalling that France has been “the most attractive country in Europe for four years”. Once the self-congratulatory part was over, he looked ahead to the year 2024, which the Davos participants perceived as fraught with geopolitical threats. “A year at the heart of all the challenges,” he says, “where the world is recomposing itself.”
The only president of the G7 countries present in Davos this year – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz canceled his participation due to his internal difficulties – the Frenchman posed as captain of Europe. If he did not use the term “rearmament” used for his national audience, the meaning was the same: it is a question of preventing Russia from winning the war, of strengthening the capabilities of the Old Continent, “although ‘it happens in the United States’. The consequences of a Donald Trump victory are in every conversation in Davos. Emmanuel Macron pleaded for Europe to invest jointly, by means of “Eurobonds” to finance its defense needs, as it did to protect itself from the economic effects of the Covid pandemic. Speaking directly to the big bosses in front of him, he urged them: “Help us to give more hope to the middle classes, to create “good jobs”.”
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Despite the challenges – wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, global warming, tensions between China and the United States, the ultra-rapid rise of artificial intelligence – Emmanuel Macron presented himself as an “optimist”, and assured that “the decisions to change things are in our hands.” “He sends wood. No head of state is capable of going into this level of detail, commented a CAC 40 boss. But if I were his communications advisor, I would say that I missed one or two things. The good student’s copy is too perfect.”
Previously, the French president had met around sixty CEOs of the International Business Council, one of the many “communities” created by the World Economic Forum (WEF). In this Alpine version of the “Choose France” meetings included the Saudi group Olayan, the Indian Bharti, the Swedish ABB, Bank of America, Novartis and the German BASF. “CEOs” were concerned about Europe’s lack of competitiveness compared to the United States, particularly on energy prices.
No minister was allowed to accompany the president for his half-day Swiss getaway. Not even Bruno Le Maire, a regular at meetings with bosses and foreign counterparts in the Swiss resort, who had initially planned to go there. The Élysée chose instead to invite twenty bosses of French Tech start-ups and mid-sized companies, to give them the benefit of the extraordinary meeting place with the planet that Davos offers. For the leaders of young startups in the French delegation (including Mistral AI, Verkor, Pasqal and Waga Energy), the opportunity was unique to meet, in the space of just a few days, potential clients (companies or governments), potential partners and investors from all over the world.
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Four regional presidents – Jean Rottner (Grand Est), Renaud Muselier (Paca), Chrystèle Morançais (Pays de la Loire) and Valérie Pécresse (Île-de-France) – were also invited by the Élysée. Valérie Pécresse had planned to go to Davos this year, she told Le Figaro, but when she received the invitation from the Élysée, she chose to play with the “team France”. She herself met around thirty bosses from India, Australia, the United States and China, in tech, construction and energy. “The interest of Davos is that we have direct access to CEOs, to decision-makers,” underlines the president of the Île-de-France region. If they say to me for example: “we want land, access to this bilingual school”, I can make decisions and find solutions myself.”
The Davos Forum also allows diplomatic meetings, more or less discreet. During his very short stay, the French president had scheduled two brief meetings in his diary, one with Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan, the other with Mohammed Chia al-Soudani, Iraqi Prime Minister. Emmanuel Macron had already come to Davos in 2016 as Minister of the Economy. He was well integrated into the World Economic Forum network since he had been selected in March 2016 among the “Young Global Leaders”, a network of leaders aged between 30 and 40 identified for their high potential. The teams of Professor Schwab, the founder of the Forum, were not mistaken. This year, Klaus Schwab presented Emmanuel Macron with “a leaders’ trophy”. The last to receive it was Nelson Mandela.
