French Pres. Macron Wants France To Be A ‘Start-Up Nation’ — Sound Familiar?
By Aiden Pink June 15, 2017
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.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
