The first French employers’ organization is changing hands. The result of the race for the presidency of Medef between Patrick Martin and Dominique Carlac’h will be known this Thursday at noon, after a four-month campaign.
The Medef, which brings together some 190,000 companies employing a total of more than 10 million employees, has for the occasion invited all of its major voters, who are a little over a thousand, to Hangar Y in Meudon, in the Hauts-de-Seine.
Patrick Martin is the favorite
Pending the proclamation of the result, each of the two candidates will speak, after which the outgoing president Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux will speak for what should be his “last speech”, we learned from the Medef. Before finally turning the page on his unique five-year mandate, he will again take part in the Aix-en-Provence Economic Meetings this weekend, then hand over on July 17.
Deputy Chairman and as such number two in the organization, Patrick Martin enjoys the support of a large number of professional federations and regional organizations of the Medef and is considered a favourite.
Dominique Carlac’h wants to embody renewal
In the position of challenger, Dominique Carlac’h, who is vice-president and spokesperson for the movement, sought during the campaign to print an image of renewal, while rallying to her cause the other candidates who had launched in March in the race for the presidency, Pierre Brajeux, Guillaume Cairou and Olivier Klotz. It is also supported by certain big bosses including Jean-Dominique Senard from Renault and Christel Heydemann from Orange.
Patrick Martin, 63, runs a company with nearly 3,000 employees, active mainly in distribution to industry, and is a continuation of Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. Supporter of an additional reduction of 20 billion euros in production taxes, to bring them back to the European average, he believes that the climate transition, because of the “gigantic” investments that it requires, “should encourage us to introduce in our social protection a part of pension by capitalization “. Aged 63, he also wants to focus on training and employability, especially for seniors with the raising of the retirement age.
Dominique Carlac’h, 54, wants for his part “to build a Medef of our time” which would make more room for start-ups. It proposes to “transform the freedom to do business into a universal right to do business” by setting up “policies for the care of children and dependent persons” to enable women in particular to devote themselves fully to their entrepreneurial activity.
The former French junior champion in the 400 meters, now vice-president of the French Athletics Federation, would be the second woman to become president, after Laurence Parisot, who served two terms from 2005 to 2013.