While corporate competitiveness issues have not been discussed at all during the between-Tower debate, the only theme of start-ups and innovation gave rise to a short exchange between Marine Le Pen and the outgoing president.
by
In 2017, during the last straight line preceding his election, Emmanuel Macron had gathered around him the entrepreneurs of the new economy. The Union had been consecrated on April 13, 2017, at the Palais Brongniart, making him the candidate of the “start-up nation”. For his re-election, the president-candidate did not make this theme a campaign argument but was brought back to the televised debate which opposed it on April 20 in Marine Le Pen.
Faced with his competitor in the second round, who called his wishes the creation of a “Google European” – What no European state has managed to do – Emmanuel Macron recalled his balance sheet in the field Digital. “Our country is the one that produces the most start-up and they grow,” he argued. More specifically, he cited companies such as Doctolib, involved in the wave of vaccination against COVID, and Blablacar, which favors carpooling.
Record Amount
In France, the number of unicorns (young shoots valued at over a billion dollars) increased from 2 to more than 25 in five years, he explained. In 2021 fundraising in favor of tricolor start-ups have never been as high, more than € 11 billion. And the year 2022 promises to beat this record.
In the course of the five-year, the initiatives have been numerous to support the ecosystem of French start-ups, the accompaniment of young trees tricolores at the CES of Las Vegas, the largest technology show in the world, up to DEEP Tech program to support the creation of companies from basic research, and, in fine, the reindustrialisation of France. The President of the Republic has even staged alongside the greatest bosses of the Tech on the occasion of the Annual Choose France event, created during his term, which aims to attract investment in France.
Digital is also a ground for the Macron candidate to oppose his opponent, reputed anti-European. It is, according to him, to the dimension of the European Union that can be played against the hegemony of Chinese and American digital giants. “Who helps us when Google come to tackle our markets? It is Europe. Who does not like Europe can not create digital champions,” he has assane. On this point, Marine Le Pen did not respond.