Vincent Bolloré’s plan to take France by storm

Paris. Vincent Bolloré, the French financial shark and former shareholder in Mediobanca, did not become the owner of a media giant such as Canal Plus and a publishing behemoth such as Lagardère solely with the intention of doing business. “His is not simply a business venture. No, Bolloré is convinced he is on a mission. A divine mission,” Camille Vigogne Le Coat, a political journalist at Le Nouvel Obs who has just co-authored an investigative book with Clément Lacombe on the Breton magnate – La droite de Dieu. Vincent Bolloré, un milliardaire en mission (Les Arènes) – tells Il Foglio. The result of 18 months’ work and over 150 interviews with Bolloré’s colleagues and close friends—who have witnessed his political and religious radicalisation—the book recounts the entrepreneur’s messianic project, at the heart of which lies the Institut de l’Espérance, the Catholic-conservative think tank secretly established in April 2025 and modelled on the Heritage Foundation, which played a decisive role in Donald Trump’s re-election.

“He is one of the few, if not the only millionaire today who owns media outlets which, rather than enhancing his reputation, end up damaging it, as well as harming his business. He is losing money on his media outlets. If he continues to invest, it is not to defend his own interests, but to defend a world view, an ideological and politico-religious project: the restoration of the France of his childhood, conservative and Christian,” Camille Vigogne Le Coat explains to Il Foglio, before adding: “He feels that the country is on the brink of collapse and civil war and that it is necessary, in the final stage of his life – given that he is over 70 – to use his wealth to contribute to a project aimed at re-evangelising France and uniting the French right and far right.” The media outlets he owns – from Cnews (TV) to the Journal du dimanche (print), via Europe 1 (radio) – are all at the service of his project to re-Christianise France. Every week, the Breton billionaire personally chairs meetings with the editors-in-chief of his respective media outlets, during which “every article is presented, every cover proposal is submitted to the big boss, who approves or rejects the project”, write the authors of the book.

The Institut de l’Espérance, the think tank launched with the aim of proposing an ultra-conservative political programme for the benefit of presidential candidates wishing to draw inspiration from it, is based at 51 Boulevard de Montmorency, in Paris’s 16th arrondissement, within a stately three-storey building that houses the headquarters of the Compagnie de l’Odet, the Bolloré family’s historic company. Members of the think tank have met on several occasions over the past year and have drawn up a 36-page manifesto which includes, amongst other things, measures promoting national preference, draconian cuts to public spending and the repeal of abortion rights. The document, which lists one hundred measures, calls for a limit on immigration – which it argues brings in cheap labour – in order to help raise wages, and for social housing to be reserved for French citizens. It calls for a reduction in public spending to 49 per cent of GDP from the current 57 per cent, and the introduction of a programme to encourage young people to start businesses with small loans. The Institut also advocates policies promoting ‘Christian values’ in France, ranging from the reintroduction of school uniforms and flag-raising ceremonies in schools to the abolition of laws prohibiting the obstruction of abortion. Its agenda also includes the end of the European Union as we know it today, a review of the treaties, and, on the domestic front, raising the retirement age to 67.

With the 2027 presidential elections on the horizon, who is Bolloré backing? “Ideologically speaking, he is close to Éric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo (the two leaders of the right-wing identitarian party Reconquête!, ed.). But he is a man of finance; he knows how to read the figures and interpret voting intentions, so he is well aware that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s Rassemblement National (RN) is currently the party with the best chance of winning within the broader political family of the right and far right. So – concludes Camille Vigogne Le Coat – he acts as he does in business: he acquires stakes, investing a little in each one.”