12.19.19
Gemini version available ♊︎Understanding Thierry Breton: Concordia, Integritas, Industria
Overview
Understanding Thierry Breton
- Part 1: In the Beginning...
- Part 2: “Mister Cash” Arrives at France Télécom
- Part 3: Toxic Management Goes on Trial in France
- Part 4: Moral Responsibility for “a Capitalism That Kills”?
- Part 5: Chirac's Entrepreneurial “Joker”
- Part 6: The “Cost-Killer” Tries to Tame the National Debt
- Part 7: “Rhodiagate” and the Vivendi Universal Affair
- Part 8: Insider-Trading Scandal at EADS
- Part 9: Noël Forgeard and His “Golden Parachute”
- Part 10: What Thierry Did Next...
- Part 11: Atos Healthcare - “The Ugly Face of Business”
- Part 12: Thierry and the $100 Billion Man
- Part 13: Socialising With the Elite
- Part 14: More Influential Friends in High Places
- Part 15: Thierry & Nicolas - a Bromance That Turned Sour?
- Part 16: “Mister Cash” and “Madame Bailout”
- Part 17: Thierry and the EPO's “Sun-King”
- Part 18: Emmanuel Macron and His “Joker” in Brussels
- You are here ☞ Part 19: Concordia, Integritas, Industria
- Part 20: The “Killer Shark” Resurfaces…
- Part 21: Little Miss Ladson Goes to Brussels
- Part 22: A “Club Med” Coup in Brussels?
- Part 23: “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers…”
- Part 24: A Happy Ending – for Some at Least.
Epilogue will follow.
The Rothschild family motto: Concord, Integrity and Industry
Summary: Macron has never made any secret of his Rothschild connections
After graduating from the ENA in 2004, Macron started off his career as a senior civil servant in the Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF), an elite corps within the Ministry for the Economy and Finance whose members are recruited from the highest-ranking ENA graduates.
In 2007, he had his first taste of the limelight as deputy rapporteur on the “Commission to Unleash French Growth”, a cross-party commission on economic reform convened by the newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy who charged it with studying “the bottlenecks that constrain growth”.
Macron (right), in 2007 as part of the cross-party Attali commission set up to look at ways to boost French economic growth
The commission was chaired by the Algerian-born Jacques Attali, an economic and social theorist, writer, political adviser and senior civil servant, who had served as a counsellor to President François Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991 and was the first head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1991-1993.
“After graduating from the ENA in 2004, Macron started off his career as a senior civil servant in the Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF)…”But the ambitious young Énarque was growing restless and starting to get bored with his nine-to-five civil service job.
In 2008, he paid €50,000 to buy himself out of his government contract so that he could move to the private sector.
It wasn’t just any old job that Emmanuel had set his sights on. He joined the prestigious investment bank Rothschild & Cie where he worked on mergers and acquisitions from 2008 to 2012 and acquired the sobriquet of the “Mozart of Finance”.
Between 2008 and 2012 Macron pursued a short but highly lucrative career at Rothschild & Cie
The French branch of the Rothschild financial dynasty was founded in Paris in 1812 by James Mayer de Rothschild who was sent there from his home in Frankfurt, Germany, by the patriarch, Mayer Amschel Rothschild. In collaboration with the other branches of the family, the French branch soon rose to prominence in the world of international finance.
“In 2007, he had his first taste of the limelight…”Over the years, the family’s fortunes have flowed and ebbed with the tide of political events. For example, the interests of all Rothschild family branches across Europe were adversely impacted to a significant degree by the popular uprisings of 1848, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the rise of anti-Jewish resentments followed by World War II.
In the 1930s, their substantial railroad holdings were nationalized by the French government and after the fall of France 1940 the Nazis confiscated the Paris bank.
The bank was restored to family ownership at the end of the war but in 1981 it was once again removed from their hands, this time following nationalisation by the Socialist government of President François Mitterrand.
“But the ambitious young Énarque was growing restless and starting to get bored with his nine-to-five civil service job.”It was only after the Socialists lost power in 1986 that the Rothschilds managed to obtain a new banking license in France.
In 1987 Baron David René de Rothschild joined by other family members including cousin Eric de Rothschild created a successor company, Rothschild & Cie Banque.
Capitalised at a mere $ 1 million and starting with just three employees, they rapidly expanded their operation into a major player in France and continental Europe.
“Macron’s share of the fees on this € 9 billion deal made him a millionaire.”According to French media reports, Macron was head-hunted by François Henrot, one of David de Rothschild’s most trusted associates, on the recommendation of Jacques Attali and Alain Minc — another Énarque and former Inspecteur des Finances.
After working on the recapitalization of the newspaper Le Monde and the acquisition of Siemens IT Solutions and Services by Atos in 2010 / 2011, Macron was promoted to a partner.
Soon afterwards, he was appointed as managing director and put in charge of Nestlé’s acquisition of one of Pfizer’s largest subsidiaries, its infant food unit. Macron’s share of the fees on this € 9 billion deal made him a millionaire.
The “Mozart of Finance” got a good return on the € 50,000 he invested to buy himself out of his civil service contract
According to a French media report published in 2014, an official declaration of financial interests filed by Macron as Minister for the Economy revealed that he had earned € 2.4 million at Rothschild over a period of 18 months.
Macron’s connections to the Rothschilds go beyond purely financial affairs.
Both he and his wife are often seen rubbing shoulders at social events with senior members of the banking dynasty such as his old boss David de Rothschild and cousin, Eric, chair of the Rothschild Archive Trust.
Macron with Eric de Rothschild in April 2017 during the presidential election campaign
The Macrons are regular guests of David de Rothschild at the annual dinner organised by CRIF, an umbrella organisation of French Jewish associations.
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron with David de Rothschild at the 2018 CRIF annual dinner
Brigitte Macron having a good old giggle with David de Rothschild at the CRIF annual dinner in 2019
Brigitte was also spotted in the company of David de Rothschild together with Claude Chirac, reputed to be a former girlfriend of Nicolas Sarkozy, at the 90th birthday celebrations for the French singer and actress Line Renaud in July 2018.
Claude Chirac, David de Rothschild and Brigitte Macron at the 90th birthday celebrations for actress Line Renaud in Paris
Macron’s well-publicised connections to the Rothschilds and his connections to leading figures of France’s large and influential Jewish community have often made him the target of criticism and denunciation and all kinds of off-the-wall conspiracy theories before during and after the 2017 presidential election campaign.
“Macron’s connections to the Rothschilds go beyond purely financial affairs.”Back in March 2017 when the election campaign was in its final stages and Macron’s victory was by no means certain, the Financial Times noted that “Emmanuel Macron’s Rothschild years make him an easy election target”.
The article cited Luc Rouban, a professor at CEVIPOF, research centre of the Paris Institute of Political Studies known as “Sciences Po”. According to Rouban, the Eurozone debt crisis, along with an underlying suspicion of the monetary system and globalised capitalism, had intensified anti-bank sentiment among the public with the consequence that most candidates — with the exception of Macron — were promising to rein in the power of financial institutions.
“According to Rouban, the Eurozone debt crisis, along with an underlying suspicion of the monetary system and globalised capitalism, had intensified anti-bank sentiment among the public with the consequence that most candidates — with the exception of Macron — were promising to rein in the power of financial institutions.”According to Rouban: “This makes Macron look like the candidate of the globalised elite.”
The FT article also referred to an incident at the start of March 2017 in which the centre-right Les Républicains party, successor to the UMP, triggered a political “shitstorm” by tweeting a caricature that appeared to borrow heavily from the anti-Semitic propaganda iconography of the 1930s.
Macron was depicted as “the banker’s candidate” with a long hooked nose and a top hat, using a sickle to cut a cigar and surrounded by allies from his circle of trust.
A caricature of Macron tweeted by Les Républicains borrowed heavily from anti-Semitic tropes of the 1930s and unleashed a storm of criticism about the standard of the political debate.
The caricature sparked an veritable “shitstorm” on social media, and it was soon replaced with more innocuous photograph of Macron. Les Républicains were quick to issue an apology on the party’s Twitter account saying that it desired to “avoid any pointless controversies”.
An apology was quickly issued and the controversial caricature was replaced by a photograph.
François Fillon, the party’s candidate, was also quick off the mark to tweet a statement condemning the drawing as “unacceptable” and saying he would not tolerate the dissemination of caricatures that used features of “anti-Semitic propaganda”.
“The caricature sparked an veritable “shitstorm” on social media, and it was soon replaced with more innocuous photograph of Macron.”“I understand the emotion it may have triggered because it alluded to drawings from a dark period in our history and had echos of an ideology I have always fought against,” Fillon said. “Political combat is tough but it must remain dignified,” he added, saying he had asked the party’s secretary general to punish those who have given the party an “image totally contrary to our values”.
The En Marche! spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, criticised Les Républicains‘ “use of terms and images that tap into the anti-Semitic imagination” and he expressed concerns about the quality of the debate and “the state of mind that prevails among the management of some [campaigns]“.
It deserves to be said at this point that Macron has never made any secret of his Rothschild connections. These connections have been well documented in the French media and in books such as “Rothschild, une banque au pouvoir” (“Rothschild, a bank in power”) which examines the influence of the bank in French politics.
“It deserves to be said at this point that Macron has never made any secret of his Rothschild connections.”Thierry Breton on the other hand is much more circumspect in this regard and he seems to do everything he possibly can to conceal his close business and social connections to the illustrious financial dynasty.
A quick glance at the LinkedIn entries of the French President and his newly appointed Commissioner in Brussels confirms their difference approaches on this issue.
Emmanuel makes no bones about disclosing his previous employment relationship with Rothschild & Cie from 2008 to 2012. For him it’s like a badge of honour that he wears with pride.
“A quick glance at the LinkedIn entries of the French President and his newly appointed Commissioner in Brussels confirms their difference approaches on this issue.”However, Thierry prefers to keep shtum about his own stint as a senior advisor for the US branch of the Rothschilds between 2007 and 2008.
Come on Thierry, it’s an open secret so what exactly is it that you are trying to hide?
In the next part we will look at how Thierry’s old pal, the “killer shark” from Baker McKenzie and the IMF, resurfaced in European waters earlier this year as a result of Macron’s political machinations in Brussels. █
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