Backing Your Values With Your Money? Only if the Left Approves

"The French Left just took the global trend of 'let’s silence all who dare to challenge the system' to another level". Attacking Catholics is the Left's raison d'être.

From The European Conservative

By Hélène de Lauzun, PhD

The French Left just took the global trend of “let’s silence all who dare to challenge the system” to another level.

After targeting Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, owner of the Cnews channel, the Left is now taking a close interest in entrepreneur Pierre-Édouard Stérin, known for his numerous investments in conservative initiatives.

Although the man has a reputation for being rather discreet, his name has appeared repeatedly in the left-wing press over the past few months, along with condemnations of the initiatives he supports and finances on the grounds that they serve a “far-right ideology.”

In the writings of militant journalists on the French far Left, Stérin has become a grey eminence who is said to be behind all manners of dirty tricks. Apparently, Stérin wants to bring the French press to heel. If you didn’t know, Stérin wants to make France bow to the dictates of the “reactionary Catholic far Right.” And the list continues. 

Behind this caricature, so diabolical to the Left, is simply a man who has chosen to focus his investments on traditional French values. Billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin, who built his fortune with Smartbox products, is now one of the leading investors in a range of projects serving the common good—as reflected in the name of the investment fund he founded in 2021 to support initiatives based on four priority areas of development: solidarity, comprehensive education, culture and heritage, human and spiritual growth.

Beyond the Common Good Fund, Stérin and his colleagues are working on a more ambitious initiative: the Pericles project, which was revealed a few months ago by the left-wing press. La France Insoumise MP Antoine Léaument listed the charges against Stérin on X: “Patriot—Rooted—Resistance fighter—Identitarian—Christian—Liberal—European—Sovereignist.” This list, whose acronym, Pericles, gives its name to the long-term political project that Stérin is pursuing for France. 

These adjectives, we would say, describe a perfectly respectable pedigree, but the far Left does not see it that way: it sees a plan to “bring the RN to power.”

The Left also criticises him for supporting the launch of an English-style boarding school for gifted children, part of the vast Académies Saint-Louis project, which promotes the comprehensive education of the French youth as advocated by the Catholic Church. There are fears that it will spread an “ultra-reactionary” ideology among young people, with “traditionalist” and “therefore fundamentalist” values, according to the communist newspaper L’Humanité. 

All this easily fuels the Left’s fantasy machine. In addition to the progressive press, a whole pack of militant associations linked to the far Left has been set on Stérin’s trail. 

The smear campaign eventually reached the National Assembly. On April 10th, Stérin was summoned by an inquiry commission to examine his possible influence on the elections.

Stérin did indeed play a role in the 2022 presidential campaign, where he exchanged ideas with the team of Reconquête candidate Éric Zemmour. In 2023, he moved closer to the Rassemblement National through the number two at his company Otium Capital, François Durvye, who joined the circle of advisers close to Marine Le Pen. The same year, Stérin and Durvye, through a real estate company, bought the villa in the upmarket suburb of Rueil-Malmaison, where Jean-Marie Le Pen lived, from the Le Pen family. Both are working to lend credibility to the RN’s economic programme with a view to its rise to power.

He is accused of wanting to use his funding to influence the outcome of the elections—as if it were not possible to put one’s money at the service of one’s convictions. Such accusations, needless to say, were never levelled in the past against, for example, the gay billionaire Pierre Bergé, partner of Yves Saint-Laurent and staunch supporter of the Socialist Party … and of Emmanuel Macron.

Stérin declined the summons to the Assembly. Not on principle, but solely on procedural grounds. He requested the option of responding by videoconference—a perfectly legal option, which investigative committees sometimes use when the person being questioned is unable to travel. During the pandemic, this was common practice. Stérin, in addition to not residing in France, has good reasons for preferring video conferencing. As his lawyer explained, he is simply seeking to protect himself after receiving dozens of death threats: in recent days, he has been forced to file no fewer than 24 complaints to the police. In Tours, a poster was put up calling for his beheading, according to Boulevard Voltaire. The interior ministry has made clear that the threats must be taken seriously. But the Left prefers to talk about “evasion” or “flight” to describe his refusal to appear in person before the inquiry commission.

A few weeks ago, another man refused to submit to this legal and mandatory procedure as part of a corruption investigation. The man in question was Alexis Kohler, who for years held the position of secretary general of the Élysée Palace, making him Macron’s closest collaborator. The Left did not express much outrage, and Kohler will not be prosecuted. But Kohler’s God is not Stérin’s God. 

The case is taking on a new dimension. On Tuesday, May 20th, the chair of the parliamentary inquiry committee announced his intention to refer the matter to the courts. The president of the National Assembly completed with a thunderous statement, urging Stérin to honor his commitments—something he has never refused to do. 

The Left should be wary: the relentless attacks it has launched against Vincent Bolloré in recent months have only served to further enhance the credibility and popularity of one of the few figures who dare to challenge the system.

Pictured: Pierre-Édouard Stérin