Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, the co-leaders of France’s Rassemblement National (RN), have sent a joint letter to business executives offering dialogue and pledging to slash bureaucracy as the party seeks to reassure corporate France ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
In the letter, made public today and published on X by party President Bardella, the RN leaders criticised what they called the relentless growth of regulations “often adopted without real assessment of their impact”, which they said imposed a heavy cost on businesses and reduced the purchasing power of French citizens.
They announced the creation of a dedicated RN working group tasked with consulting business lobbies and organisations to identify harmful norms at both French and Euroopean Union levels.
The two leaders stated their aim was to produce a wide-ranging “simplification decree” to be issued at the start of any future RN term in office, with the goal of “liberating the French economy” and boosting production.
They invited companies to contribute ideas for the country’s economic recovery.
The move comes two weeks after Le Pen attended a private dinner on April 7 at the Drouant restaurant in Paris with around a dozen senior business figures. They included LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanné, and executives from AXA, Renault, Engie, Accor and others.
Organised by the informal business group Entreprise et Cité, the off-the-record meeting reportedly featured tense exchanges over the RN’s euroscepticism and plans to reverse the 2023 pension reform that raised the retirement age.
Some participants were said to have left concerned about the clarity and coherence of the party’s economic vision.
Today, Bardella held a first-ever lunch with the executive bureau of the employers’ federation Medef. That marked another sign of the gradual normalisation of contacts between the RN and France’s business elite, who have grown increasingly anxious about the country’s public finances, weak growth and high debt.
Bardella was accompanied by a new “special adviser”, François Durvye, a former managing director of Otium Capital, an investment fund.
Upon leaving the meeting, Bardella told reporters: “We share the objective of putting the French economy back on its feet.”
Left-wing unions, notably the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), criticised Medef for what they called “cynicism” in inviting the RN, arguing that the party is “not like the others”.
The outreach follows reports that a US delegation, including US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, met RN leaders but came away underwhelmed by the party’s economic plans, particularly regarding deficit reduction and structural reforms.
The RN has sought to project a more pro-business image in recent months, emphasising deregulation and support for production while retaining core sovereignist positions.
Critics within the business community continue to express doubts about the party’s fiscal credibility and internal divergences between Le Pen’s more interventionist leanings and Bardella’s efforts to appear economically liberal.
The party maintains that its programme is the most growth-oriented on the French political spectrum.
Les normes représentent un coût exorbitant pour les entreprises et affaiblissent le pouvoir d’achat des Français.
Avec @MLP_officiel, nous associons le monde économique à notre réflexion pour identifier et lever ces verrous qui freinent le développement de notre pays ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/lO5cKElbWH
— Jordan Bardella (@J_Bardella) April 20, 2026
