Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-04-22
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Michel Offerlé, Sociology of Politics, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSL
Less known to the general public than Medef, the French Association of Private Enterprises, or Afep, is it less influential? This discreet organization nevertheless carries out lobbying work. As the next presidential election approaches, what role will it play?
After a complete absence of online presence, the French Association of Private Enterprises (Afep) is now selected by algorithms as a priority, compared to the other two associations sharing the same acronym: the French Association of Gifted Children or the French Association of Political Economy.
Yet it remains just as discreet as it is little known. Just mention this acronym to friends or colleagues to notice the very low awareness of this organization, which provokes very few articles in the press. Its headquarters are located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, and no protester has ever come there to march.
And yet, this is indeed an archetype from which one could derivea set of concepts in political science, and of vested political interests, around the issues of “influence,” “pressure,” “veto groups,” or, in a more caricatural manner, the grip of the “big capital” on political power).
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An unknown couple
To understand Afep, one must first understand the partnership it forms with Medef, the Movement of Companies of France. Afep was created in 1982 byAmbroise Roux, then former Chairman and CEO of Compagnie générale des eaux, former all-powerful president of the Economic Commission of the National Council of French Employers (CNPF, renamed Medef in 1998) and reputed as the “godfather of French capitalism.” By creating Afep, he re-founded the Association of Large French Enterprises appealing to Savings (Agref), created in 1969. The nationalizations of 1982 had thinned the association’s ranks, and the conflicts between the new president of the CNPF, Yvon Gattaz, and Ambroise Roux explain this re-foundation, which then had 36 affiliates.
“It is a matter of offering public authorities studies concerning business problems, demonstrating the necessity of significant reforms, and which, having analyzed this conclusion, would transform it into a document including a statement of reasons, the text of the law, and a number of implementing decrees,” he reportedly declared at the time.according to his biographer.
Afep is not a representative employers’ organization, like the CNPF then the Medef. Not being a social partner, Afep does not negotiate. Furthermore, it is not federations or territorial unions that are members, as in the main employers’ confederation, but individual companies.
A selective club
It is described by its members as a cooptative club“more selective than Le Siècle”or, byl’Humanitéof February 16, 2026 as “the political bureau of French capitalism”. Abusiness roundtableIn the French style.
Not just anyone can enter, and the number of co-opted members is currently 117, including a good thirty very large family businesses, which can also explain the strong commitment on certain heritage tax issues concerning them.
Some multinational companies remain there, even if their turnover generated in France is minor, while others prefer not to be part of it, considering Afep to be too hexagonal (Essilor). It represents 13% of the French market GDP and declares employing 2.1 million people in France,according to its annual report.
Seven presidents and one president (female)
It has had eight presidents, appointed by consensus, since its creation: often, in the 20th century, some” ‘State bosses’ “}]}.
Patricia Barbizet is the first president. Outgoing and althoughcontested because deemed barely audible, her mandate is expected to be renewed in May 2026, but for only one year. Meanwhile, a search is underway for a personality capable of managing the post-presidential election situation…
The title is sought after for a top executive, in the same way as the presidency of the Institut de l’entreprise or the Institut Montaigne, Medef being unattractive for abig boss who is bored there. OnlyTwo top executives will indeed sit on the Medef’s executive council in 2026. Thus, Michel Pébereau explained the reasons for his refusal:
“My guiding principle has always been to avoid officially representing an employers’ organization, because I value my freedom of speech on all subjects concerning city life.” (Interview with Michel Offerlé.)
Delicate transactions
The co-option of the president involves delicate transactions between economic balance and political anticipation. Afep also maintains aright to oversee the election of the Medef presidentand also a right of revocation over anything that may concern “the employer’s cause,” vis-à-vis the Medef which it can oversee, if necessary, through the channel of the major federations and large companies.
This is therefore a co-opted club, where the membership fee is high, 70,000 euros. With a budget of 9.3 million euros, this allowsemploy 17 people including 8 women, directors reputed to be very specialized in the fiscal, environmental, and legal fields,often recruited by therevolving door(these figures were communicated to me by Afep via email. Afep, moreover, does not wish to disclose the amount of contributions. The financial report is not available. The total number of employees is 27, including “the team of assistants and general services”.)
This “in-house” expertise is backed by another expertise provided free of charge by large companies that delegate more than a thousand of their senior executives to commission work. The budget of 9.3 million should therefore be considerably reassessed based on this expertise made available by the companies.
Mastering the agenda
This organization operates at several levels in the construction of public issues that can directly or indirectly impact its “reason for being”: it concernsput measures on the agenda and frame them, to avoid putting on the agenda those that it deems harmful, or even to appropriate an issue that will not become public. The Brussels scale (European Commission, editor’s note) can also be important, by acting like all lobbies, or by circumventing, here too, from above (direct access to commissioners) and from below (cocktail with parliamentary assistants). Its most visible activities are listed on its site (with leaders of theDGFIPor the Treasury, the Financial Markets Authority or AMF, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberties or CNIL, the Directorate-General of the Brussels Commission, the International Sustainability Standards Board or ISSB, or even representatives of the Hungarian or Polish governments during their EU presidency [2024 report]. If Afep exerts influence, it rarely intervenes publicly in the public debate.
In 2001, the then-president of Medef, Ernest-Antoine Seillière, was called to order. He is admonished for having called for the cessation of the deduction of supplementary pension contributions.
Modes of action different from those of Medef
Fundamentally, the leaders of Afep neither share the forms of action of the one who was sometimes nicknamed the “Baron,” nor some of his orientations, nor the trust in theassessment of the social rebuilding project. His project to integrate the Afep into the Medef had not led to any results. In an unusual move, a “Call of 56 bosses,” dated October 24, 2001, against the social modernization law, also targeted the Medef.
On the contrary, on October 9, 2012,she also signs a joint statement in a very unusual waywith the Medef, the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CGPME) and other organizations to intervene in the conflict between the government and themovement called the “pigeons”.
The choice of “quiet politics”
Afep prefers a quiet lobbying that results inchoice of thequiet politics, or “velvety threats” (stealth politics).
“It is quite depoliticized… almost being a technical partner in the sense of developing the legislative and regulatory corpus, and not at all on the debate of ideas, and even little on strong argumentation (…) we do not make large developments, big arguments, big speeches, and no press communication, the idea is that one should not exist in the media and therefore, on the other hand, we try to develop something that is a technical expertise, (…) comparative competitiveness of the French economy is central… we will go to the solution, it is there, it is clean, it is good, and, as a result, this will gradually create a reputation of an organization that is quite pleasant for the public authorities” (a former permanent member of Afep in Offerlé 2013).
She was hardly present in thelively ideological debates on the future of capitalism after 2008, where the Montaigne Institute and the Business Institute competed with analyses and promises about the regeneration of capitalism.
“We act with quantified arguments and through the culture of ‘tricolumns’: government text / our comments / our amendments” (Interview Michel Offerlé with a former president of Afep in 2010.)
The more media-focused period of Maurice Lévy, president from 2010 to 2012 and an advertising executive, has passed. And without being the silent body it once was, Afep has become discreet and more abstinent again; however, sacrificing to the spirit of the times through some public interventions, such as the annual Top AFEP and Top Jeunes events held at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.
One does not beg
The core business of Afep is influence, not “vulgar” pressure, but the ability to often make itself indispensable given its reputation – essential? – for mastery of issues good for business and good for France. Unlike many interest groups, Afep does not ask, but it is consulted and solicited.
She distills, instills, provides ready-made thinking or rather ready-made legislation or, better yet, ready-made regulation (because niche regulation can be particularly important). Periodic meetings between general secretaries of large companies, working lunches or dinners with politicians, and a required presence of top executives in person at Afep board meetings: they summon, question, or inform and instruct their selected interlocutors.
This is how Afep most often promotes self-regulation, for example, in the area of corporate governance. It is, along with Medef, the custodian of the corporate governance code for listed companies, which is not simply a management tool.
It has become a way for large companies to define the purpose of the company. For example, the 2018 revision anticipated, to some extent, the Pacte law by incorporating the fact that its board of directors“• is committed to promoting value creation by the company in the long term by considering the social and environmental issues of its activities• “}]}. It can give rise tosurprising applications
A more publicized speech
The Covid crisis was, however, an opportunity for Afep and its members to advocate more openly for arelaxation of environmental standards. The recent period, post-Macronism of 2017 triumphant in pro-business, and post-dissolution, has disrupted the previous delicate balance. It breaks from its usual reserve and publishes acommuniqué après la dissolution, le 17 juin 2024.
And Afep has become more prominent in recent months. It participates in the tax debateby a press conferenceto present “The economic and social contribution of large French companies to the national economy in 2024.” At the beginning of 2026, a close affiliate of Afep returns to the fiscal issue, “You do not grow a country by attacking its champions” (AFP, January 19, 2026) andits president makes a call for a wake-up call, “against the renunciations and the budgetary runaway – more spending and more taxes – that inexorably lead to derailment.”
There is now a strong incentive for individual and collective top-management speaking up.
Measuring influence?
A sociological approach to employer organizations must, however, avoid attributing too much influence to them (no, employers do not win all the time; no, the Afep does not “make government policy”…) or conceding too little (yes, Afep is not an interest group like the others), for the simple reason that the interests it expresses and acts upon are not interests like others, since those in power must be particularly attentive to “the economy” and the main indicators of economic prosperity. And it intends to be their owner. To the extent that it is credited with victories (it sometimes also claims their authorship) that may be more collective than they seem.
But Afep is indeed,Next to other places including Le Siècle, a coordinating space for the French capitalist elites. The question of whether Afep will receive Jordan Bardella «Âto eat or not to eat“), which is currently stirring all the newsrooms, appears quite trivial (except for Bardella who wants this trophy for“to align a part of the elites with the popular bloc”).
The Entreprise et Cité network, another discreet elite venue, has justtaking the plunge with Marine Le Pen, by inviting her to Drouant. The executive office of Medef is following. Afep will host the RN presidential candidate in July, after the appeal decision in the trial of the RN parliamentary assistants. For what purpose? To finally learn RN’s program? To teach them economics? To instrumentalize them? In any case, it will do so more discreetly, as usual.
Michel Offerlé does not work for, advise, own shares in, or receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no affiliation other than his research institution.
–ref. The 28 Astorg street in Paris… the other address of the influence of the French employers’ association?https://theconversation.com/le-28-rue-dastorg-a-paris-lautre-adresse-de-linfluence-du-patronat-francais-279120