French banks still blackball Le Pen as companies reach out

Marine Le Pen is making inroads with corporate France weeks before the presidential election, though the country’s lenders and investors are still shunning her anti-euro agenda.

With most polls showing the far-right candidate remains favorite to lead the first-round of voting on April 23, the business community’s united front against the nationalist leader is beginning to fracture.

Le Pen has held her first meeting with the chief executive officer of a blue-chip French industrial company, her chief of staff Nicolas Lesage said in an interview, declining to give further details. Such talks would breach the code of conduct that France’s most important lobby group, AFEP, imposes on its CEOs. The lobby for mid-cap companies, Medef, has asked for a meeting with the National Front leader this month, a spokeswoman said.

http://www.standard.net/Business/201...reach-out.html