'‘Very bad news’: Why French tech is worried about Emmanuel Macron’s snap election', 24 June 2024

...A first series of opinion polls have projected that Marine Le Pen's eurosceptic National Rally (RN) party, which has a hard line against immigration, could lead the vote and be positioned to run the government with a prime minister chosen from the party.

“We need international talent everywhere,” said Chloé Clair, CEO of the green AI company namR, who said her employees are from French-speaking North Africa and South Africa.

“The more diversity there is, the more we think differently, and the less our algorithms will be biased because they're made by different people, verified by different people, who themselves have a culture, a way of thinking that is not the one we were taught our in French schools,” she told Euronews Next...

“France won't be able to succeed in this mission, and in any case, you can't succeed by being xenophobic,” she said...

As well as being Europe’s tech hub, France has also made a push for the green transition. All that could also be under threat if the far right National Rally (RN) is the leading party in the French parliament.

The party has said it would cut VAT on energy. [The CEO of carbon accounting solutions company Greenly, Alexis] Normand said this encourages the consumption of fossil fuels instead of speeding up the transition...

See also:

• France Inc. should 'mobilize' against Le Pen's far right, Macron ministers say, Reuters, 12 June 2024
  ...German business leaders, who have typically stayed out of party politics, have increasingly come out against the AfD amid fears that Germany's image as an attractive destination for foreign investment could be threatened.
  The CEOs of Siemens and Merecedes-Benz said in a German newspaper interview in May that they were involved in anti-extremism campaigns and calling on their staff to vote for democratic parties...
• WE STAND FOR VALUES, "a business alliance of more than 30 German companies and organisations that take a clear stand for... diversity, openness and tolerance"