The appointment of the boss of the French branch of the American financial giant BlackRock to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honor was criticized Wednesday by opponents of the pension reform, who accuse the company of wanting to influence it to his advantage .
Jean-François Cirelli, former leader of GDF-SUEZ, then of Engie, and current president of the French branch of BlackRock has been appointed officer on the Prime Minister's contingent, according to the New Year promotion of the National Order of the Legion of honor published Wednesday in the Official Journal.
Twitter reviews
“Jean-François Cirelli, president of BlackRock France, was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor on January 1. As a reward for pillaging our PAYG pensions? Reacted the communist party on Twitter, where the news was abundantly commented.
"BlackRock could directly benefit from #reformedesretraites", said Maxime Combes, spokesperson for the NGO Attac France.
Ladies and gentlemen
Prime Minister @EPhilippePM is very happy to announce that he has just appointed Jean-François Cirelli, president of #BlackRock France, officer of the Legion of Honor
Reminder: #BlackRock could directly benefit from #reformesdesretraites pic.twitter.com/q8y65WvkH8
Little known until then by the general public, the name of BlackRock took on a particular echo during the mobilization in France against the government's plan to reform pensions, to now adorn placards brandished during demonstrations.
Charges of collusion with the executive
The powerful asset manager was thus accused of asserting before the executive the funded pension scheme, on the model of American pension funds, to the detriment of the current French pay-as-you-go system, which he defended himself recently in a press release published by its French subsidiary.
"In no way did we seek to exert an influence on the reform of the pay-as-you-go pension system underway with the authorities or any other actor in the sector," assured BlackRock.
Former Medef boss Laurence Parisot also came to the aid of the man on Twitter.
1) Blackrock continues to invest in France, it is even a solid support of many French companies 2) It is not strictly speaking a pension fund
3) Jean-Francois Cirelli was a real servant of the State, especially alongside J. Chirac https://t.co/3vf61XyzbG
The asset manager, established in France for over 13 years, "dialogues with regulatory bodies and public authorities", "in order to explain [his] point of view on the interest of long-term investors ", According to its press release.
The daily L'Humanité had for its part published on December 11 an internal document of about fifteen pages attributed to BlackRock, detailing the interest of developing retirement savings by capitalization in France based in particular on the Pacte law Voted in the spring, even if the pay-as-you-go pension system "will remain at the heart of French retirement savings".
Founded in 1988 in the United States, BlackRock indicated on the occasion of the publication of its latest financial results that it manages a portfolio of assets of some 7,000 billion dollars.
- Emmanuel Macron
- Government
- Pension reform
- Legion of Honor
- Society