French Business Leaders See Threat to Economy From Macron’s Opponents

Both the far-right National Rally party in France and its competing left-wing New Popular Front coalition are promising to save the country from financial ruin.

But French executives gave a chilly reception Thursday to competing economic platforms from the rival parties, warning that both could endanger the French economy and distance France from the European Union.

With less than two weeks before pivotal legislative elections, members of MEDEF, the main employers association in France, held an “audition” for candidates from the main political parties that are vying to seize power from President Emmanuel Macron, whose government has been severely weakened after his party was battered by the far right in European Parliament elections.

Mr. Macron called for snap parliamentary elections, gambling that voters would reject extremes and embrace his centrist Renaissance party. The first round of voting is slated for June 30, and the final round for July 7.

On Thursday, in an ornate Paris concert hall packed to overflowing, business leaders grilled Jordan Bardella, the National Rally candidate, on how he would finance a law-and-order platform and booed when far-left candidates called for a wealth tax on billionaires. They applauded the finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, who is essentially campaigning for Mr. Macron, and whose pro-business policies are seen as helping to burnish economic growth.

Patrick Martin, the president of MEDEF, set the tone, taking to the stage at the start of the event with the heads of other business groups to criticize what he said were unrealistic, free-spending populist pledges.