The Medef (French employers' association) invites you to its meeting: "We are the true rebels"

"Entrepreneurs, all to the Accor Arena," reads the invitation seen by AFP on Saturday. The venue is located a stone's throw from the Ministry of Finance and has a capacity of around 13.000 for this event, according to the Medef.

The text, written in blue, white and red, calls, in a style similar to that of a union leaflet, for a "general mobilization of entrepreneurs" at 2 p.m. that day.

"The time has come to raise our heads and make ourselves heard," the invitation explains. "Enough of being treated like profiteers or the wealthy." "Why should we apologize for creating jobs, for boosting the economy, for giving young people a chance? Success is not a shame, it is an opportunity for France."

"Every day," the text adds, "entrepreneurs take risks, without a safety net: when it fails, they pay, when it works, the whole country benefits, so stop the stigmatization, the ever-increasing taxes and regulations, the character assassinations! Business is not the enemy of social justice: it is its condition," she adds.

"On October 13, let us be proud to be the true rebels, those who do not give up," the text concludes.

The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, did not like this appropriation, accusing the Medef of being, on the contrary, "the procession of bosses subject to great fortunes and finance which destroys nature and human society."

In a much more humorous tone, CGT leader Sophie Binet addressed Patrick Martin directly on X: "As we know that demonstrations are not your specialty, we took care of the meeting playlist," with a "gift" emoji, and a video clip of the parody song "Syndiqué tu m'auras pas," by the group Les Goguettes.

It stages a fake demonstration of bosses shouting, among other things, "CGT, you're screwed, the Medef is in the streets," "we're here, we're here, even if Binet doesn't want it, we're here," or "the bosses will win and Zucman will disappear."

Medef (Medef) President Patrick Martin announced the meeting on Tuesday, promising it would be "huge" and "include all employers' organizations," apparently without having consulted them all properly, particularly irritating the smallest representative organization, U2P (local businesses), whose president Michel Picon bluntly announced he would not attend. The CPME (Professional Employers' Union) has not yet made its position known.

Large companies, in particular, are concerned about a possible tax increase in the 2026 budget, which could also include measures targeting the highest net worth individuals.

Such a bosses' demonstration is very rare. The most memorable precedent, organized by the CNPF, the predecessor of the Medef (French employers' union), brought together 25.000 business leaders at the Villepinte Exhibition Center (Seine-Saint-Denis) on December 14, 1982, to protest against the policies implemented by Socialist President François Mitterrand.