French Pres. Macron Wants France To Be A ‘Start-Up Nation’ — Sound Familiar?

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that he would pursue business and technological policies to help France become a “start-up nation” — a phrase frequently used to describe Israel and its entrepreneurial high-tech culture.
I want France to be a start-up nation. A nation that thinks and moves like a start-up. #VivaTech pic.twitter.com/rCV2Yz0sNw
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 15, 2017
“I want France to be a nation that works with and for start-ups, and a nation that thinks and moves like a start-up,” he said at a Paris tech conference, echoing language he used during his presidential campaign. To that end, he announced the creation of a “French Tech Visa,” a special residency permit for entrepreneurs and their families.
Macron’s new policy matches with his announcement after President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accords earlier this month that France would welcome American scientists and innovators working on climate issues.
Macron is likely familiar with Israel’s reputation for high-tech wizardry — as French Jewish leaders Arié Bensemhoun and David Siegel noted in the Forward last month, Macron visited Israel in 2015 while serving as France’s economy minister. During the trip, they wrote, he “also brought dozens of top French industrial executives, and shared with the delegation many words of high praise for Israel as the ‘Start-Up Nation.’”
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter @aidenpink.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Protesters clash in Crown Heights as Ben-Gvir visits Chabad headquarters
-
Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקער שמואל קאַסאָוו דערציילט מעשׂיות פֿון זײַן משפּחה־געשיכטעVIDEO: Historian Samuel Kassow shares stories about his family history
דער ווידעאָ איז טשיקאַווע סײַ פֿאַרן אינהאַלט סײַ פֿאַר קאַסאָווס נאַטירלעכן ליטוויש־ייִדיש
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.