French technology companies have expressed their concerns to L’Observatoire de l’Europe Next about the potential consequences of snap elections called by the president for June 30 and July 7.
French voters go to the polls this week to vote in the first round of early legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron, who has championed France’s “startup nation” since the 2017 election.
But French tech companies fear that a far-right or far-left majority could slow the country’s ambitions to become the European champion of startups and turn Paris into an artificial intelligence (AI) city.
The political uncertainty has not only spooked French tech investors, but could also halt Macron’s tech initiatives, such as the French Technical Visa, a fast-track way to hire non-Schengen professionals.
Early opinion polls predict that anti-immigration Marine Le Pen’s Eurosceptic National Rally (RN) party could lead the polls and lead a government with a prime minister chosen from within the party.
“We need international talent everywhere,” said Chloé Clair, CEO of the green artificial intelligence company, whose employees come from French-speaking North and South Africa.
“The more diversity, the more different we think and the less biased our algorithms will be, because they are created by different people, checked by different people, have their own culture, their own way of thinking. the right one. We were taught in French schools,” he told L’Observatoire de l’Europe Next.
Clair argued that without diversity and immigration, Paris cannot transform from the City of Lights to the City of AI as Macron hopes.
“France will not succeed in this mission, and we cannot succeed by being xenophobic,” he declared.
Technology is “slowing down”
Another problem with better salaries abroad is the brain drain in France’s tech sector, said Pierre-Carl Langlais, co-founder of Pleias, which launched the Common Corpus, the largest public dataset for LLM (Large Language Models) studies. ).
But he added that people with experience in LLMs are not necessarily recognized for their expertise.
“There is a real gap, that is, graduates of the best universities are not necessarily specialists in this field.
“After all, they will potentially receive the funding and the side fee,” he told L’Observatoire de l’Europe Next, adding that these skills can be acquired outside the institutions, but those who are not may not have participated. the posh school is overlooked.
But political instability is already affecting tech companies ahead of the election.
Langlais said it was unlikely to be seen in the near future because the General Corps AI project was public and supported by the French Ministry of Culture.
“We don’t do long-term contracts because the problem with government funding is that on the one hand, there are very large government contracts that are pre-decided and so the schedule is a bit compressed by what’s going on. . is happening,” he said.
“I don’t think any party has much of a chance of getting a majority next month, and that could slow down a lot of projects,” he said.
French companies, and not just start-ups or technology companies, may have to wait six months before they can move forward.
“Fundraising, acquisitions, French companies saying we have to wait for the elections, this or that,” said Alexis Normand, CEO of carbon accounting solutions company Greenly.
“Actually, that means we’re waiting for September, everyone wasted six months with this story. This directly affects everyone. So this is very, very bad news,” he told L’Observatoire de l’Europe Next.
“Horse Course”
In addition to being the technological center of Europe, France has also made efforts in favor of the green transition. All this could be at risk if the far-right National Rally (RN) were to become the leading party in the French Parliament.
The party announced that it will reduce VAT on energy. Normand said this encourages fossil fuel consumption instead of accelerating the transition.
Normand is not a supporter of a far-right or far-left government.
“The far left is more favorable to environmental issues, but not more favorable to entrepreneurs. Because when you’re an entrepreneur or raising funds, you always need a well-functioning capital market.”
Whichever party wins the majority will have financial problems. Macron has implemented a series of tax reforms to benefit technology companies and launched projects such as France 2030, a national investment plan worth 30 billion euros over five years.
“Many ambitious deep technology projects are being created in France, but they need long-term financing. And if this funding stops, so many jobs cannot be created,” said Maya Noel, CEO of pressure group France Digitale.
“I am not pessimistic and I have a lot of hope. And I think that today the cause has formed a beautiful ecosystem that will be strong.
“But my fear is not to destroy everything, but to stop the acceleration completely and we’re out of the running,” he said.