THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Pierre-Édouard Stérin is financing projects to make France less Muslim, more Catholic and more capitalist. He says his program has trained thousands running for municipal office on Sunday.
As France elects thousands of mayors this Sunday, one of the most influential players is not on the ballot.
His name is Pierre-Édouard Stérin. He is a billionaire entrepreneur who left France 14 years ago to pay less tax, but has since spent millions, he said in an interview, to “ensure France doesn’t disappear.”
Inspired, he said, by George Soros’s support for liberal causes, Mr. Stérin has steered money to right-wing think tanks, political training programs, social media influencers and nonprofit groups to shape the country according to his beliefs — anti-immigrant, free-market, less Islamic and more Catholic.
One program funded by Mr. Stérin has, by his count, trained at least 4,000 right-wing candidates in the municipal elections. With the far-right National Rally party projected to potentially win the presidency next year, Mr. Stérin is striving to accelerate France’s rightward shift.
“I dream of a France that is once again economically powerful and a France that rediscovers a sense of values, that embraces its Christian roots,” Mr. Stérin, 52, said.
The France of Mr. Stérin’s dreams would be more capitalistic, socially conservative and Trumpian — and to his critics, racist. It would tolerate little immigration, particularly from Muslim countries that France colonized. Undocumented immigrants who commit crimes or do not work would be deported. Muslim dress would be banned in public, and halal food no longer served in schools.
“I am even further to the right than the far right on immigration,” said Mr. Stérin, who also considers the National Rally’s economic program too “statist.”
Mr. Stérin wants to ban abortion, access to which was
enshrined two years ago in the French Constitution; to swell Catholic church attendance; and to encourage more French couples to procreate. Since he funds Christian projects, he said, he hopes he might eventually be canonized as a saint. He disputes the idea that his views on migration clash with
those of Pope Leo XIV.
Finally, he would slash the country’s taxes; dismantle the welfare system; privatize education and health care delivery; and end public funding for culture. “I am a fervent supporter of competition,” he said.
The ultimate goal, Mr. Stérin said, is to bring to power a right-wing government that fundamentally changes how the country looks and works.
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Catherine Porter | Catherine Porter, who has covered the French far right for years, interviewed Pierre-Édouard Stérin and several of his former and current employees and associates. | Sunday, March 22, 2026
