Ideologically, Electorally: How a French Billionaire Plans to Support Far Right’s Rise to Power

French newspapers close to the French left and others independent recently revealed details of a plan described as a strategy for a cultural battle, led by French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin, to bring the far-right National Rally to power.

The document, dated fall 2023, also stipulates an investment of 150 million euros over the next ten years – 3.5 million of which were distributed last year to various pressure groups – to enable the ideological, electoral, and political victory of the right and the far-right, in addition to fighting Islam and the left, and putting an end to immigration and immigrants.

The disclosure of this political project came days after the National Rally led by Jordan Bardella failed to maintain the superiority it achieved during the first round of snap parliamentary elections.

Political Victory

An internal document revealed a plan drawn up by French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin to establish an alliance between the far-right and the conservative right in power.

According to the document, the details of which were published by the French newspaper Le Monde, Sterin's plan is based on pumping millions of euros and training candidates, within a project named Pericles.

Pericles aims to help the National Rally and Republican Party rise to power through the upcoming municipal elections in 2026.

The newspaper explained that Sterin's plan identified French identity and liberalism as criteria, socialism and immigration as declared enemies, and the National Rally and Republican Party as specific partners.

In the document, Pericles – an acronym for Patriots, Rooted, Resistant, Identitarian, Christian, Liberal, European, Sovereignists – is presented as founded and managed by Pierre-Edouard Sterin and two of his close associates.

They are Francois Durvye, CEO of the Otium Capital Fund, and Alban du Rostu, CEO of the Public Property Fund.

These two financial entities belong to the billionaire, who has been ranked several times at the top of the ranking of French investors specializing in innovative companies, and who has been making donations to associations that embody his values for several years.

The Perikles strategy aims to enable the ideological, electoral, and political triumph of a set of fundamental values, including liberal values such as individual freedom and freedom of initiative, and more conservative values, such as presenting the family as the foundation of society and claiming a special place for Christianity.

The nearly 20-page document also reveals the progress of the project to link up with the National Rally, as Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are seen as the two figures over whom Pericles' team has real influence. 

Francois Durvye is one of Marine Le Pen's trusted men, and was one of the three main editors of the program of Jordan Bardella and his party for the June 30 and July 7 legislative elections.

In turn, Sterin recently promoted Alexandre Pesey to the rank of operational advisor to Pericles, and there is also Nicolas Govillot, chairman of the board of directors of Credit Mutuel Insurance (ACM).

Pericles is the name of one of the most prominent leaders of Athens in the fifth century BC, known as an authoritarian man when it comes to putting down revolutions and uprisings.

An Ideological Project

To actually implement this project, the authors of the Pericles are planning an action strategy at all levels: societal and legal, and at the media, political, and administrative levels.

In the first phase, the project is planning a legal war against Muslims, immigration, freedom of expression, and gender theory, with the aim of changing the direction of fear and developing the law.

The project has already been partially launched, through the creation of the Justitia group in May 2023 in collaboration with the conservative think tank Thomas More Institute, according to france tv info website.

Pierre-Edouard Sterin intends to impose his themes and address them in the way he prefers, away from the media, social media, and intellectual production.

To achieve this, the project relies on producing metrics on Islam, security, immigration, and the far left, in partnership with the media responsible for widely disseminating their results to reach the entire French population.

In the long term, the authors of the Pericles aspire to spread their conservative ideas by creating the first right-wing think tank in France to bring together the main experts on sovereign topics, thus influencing the political, media, and intellectual spheres, and preparing political measures and reforms.

At the level of political institutions, the document reveals the desire of French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin to prioritize elections and train candidates compatible with this ideological project who have the best chances of winning.

To achieve this, the billionaire's team is counting, for example, on the creation of a school for future mayors that will, from September 2024, offer theoretical and practical training to candidates who share their values, with the aim of making them win municipal elections in around 1,000 small and medium-sized communities.

The Pericles project's owners claim to aim for the victory of the far-right National Rally in the 2026 municipal elections, by helping the party with an organized plan and a regional team tasked with identifying potential candidates, with the aim of winning at least 300 cities.

The authors of the document defend themselves from wanting to help the National Rally exclusively, and plan to launch similar missions in the coming months that meet the needs of each party (for example, recruiting candidates for the Republicans).

In the longer term, The Pericles Project envisages preparing in advance of the 2027 presidential election a reserve of 1,000 people (technocrats, policy professionals, subject experts) who are aligned with their ideas and who can be placed in key positions (offices, and senior management).

Billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin made his fortune, currently estimated at 1.2 billion euros, in the 2000s by founding and running Smartbox, for example, a company specializing in the sale of gift boxes.

He also has stakes in several media outlets, such as the YouTube channel Le Crayon (which nevertheless claims to be independent and neutral) or the Institute of Liberal Journalism.

His latest achievement was his attempt to buy the weekly Marianne, but without success because its owner Daniel Kretinsky recently announced his refusal to sell his magazine to Sterin.

Sterin's tax exile in Belgium also allows him to finance several charitable organizations (mostly reactionary and anti-abortion), such as the Common Good Fund, created in 2021.

This fund finances, among other things, the association SOS Calvaires, which officially renovates Christian buildings. 

Since 2015, Sterin has been on tour with the political figures who could save the country at his side: MEP Francois-Xavier Bellamy, Senator Bruno Retailleau, as well as Marion Marechal and Eric Zemmour.

What L'Humanité newspaper has revealed shows that the far-right will never break away from the neoliberal order, which has crushed people and nature for decades.

This was the case in Germany in the 1930s, when German business circles put their collaboration with the Nazis on the agenda. This is increasingly the case in France in the 2020s.