Following the resignation of Jean Gandois, four candidates will be standing for election in December 1997 to fill the vacancy for the presidency of France's largest employers' organisation.
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Following the resignation of Jean Gandois, four candidates will be standing for election in December 1997 to fill the vacancy for the presidency of France's largest employers' organisation.
Jean Gandois announced his resignation as president of the CNPF (Conseil national du patronat français), France's largest employers' organisation, in October 1997, following the tripartite national conference on employment, pay and working time (FR9710169F). Four candidates to fill the vacancy have been approved by CNPF's national executive - an "insider" and three "challengers".
All the large industrial employers' federations have already given their support to the "insider", Ernest-Antoine Seillière. Mr Seillière is the managing director of Compagnie générale d'industrie et de participation (CGIP), a financial holding company which owns corporations such as Valéo and Cap Gemini and holds shares in many other large businesses. With seven years' experience within the CNPF, as vice-president responsible for economic affairs, he already has a good knowledge of how the organisation works. In a statement published during the registration of his candidacy, Mr Seillière summarised his agenda, including the following :
to express "the ambitions, demands and worries of French entrepreneurs, especially the majority of them, those in small businesses";
to take steps to "lighten the disproportionate burden of various taxes and other charges, exacerbated by state interference, which constitutes a serious handicap for French businesses in the international marketplace";
to formulate the business community's "deep anxiety over the imminent introduction of legislation" considered "unrealistic and dangerous for business"; and
to "bring about actively the modernisation of the CNPF, whether of its organisation and functions, or its role in the process of dialogue and cooperation with the trade unions".
The three other presidential hopefuls are Marie-Françoise Bertini, head of a company employing 110 people, Jean-Pierre Gérard, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (appointed by the President of the Assemblée nationale), and Dominique Lebel, who runs a company with a staff of 50.
The national executive of the CNPF will officially announce its choice on 1 December 1997, and the election will be held on 16 December.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1997), Four candidates stand for CNPF presidency, article.
