Le Siècle is an elite

transpartisan Transpartisan, or transpartisanship, represents an emerging paradigm of political thought which accepts the validity of truths across a range of political perspectives and seeks to synthesize them into an inclusive, pragmatic container beyond typi ...

social club in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

that meets once a month for dinner at the

French Automobile Club The Automobile Club of France (french: Automobile Club de France, links=no) (ACF) is a men's club founded on November 12, 1895 by Albert de Dion, Paul Meyan, and its first president, the Dutch-born Baron Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt. The Auto ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. ...

.AFP, '"Le Siècle": Nicole Notat présidente', in ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

'', 12/11/201

/ref>Rachida Dati, ''Fille de M'Barek et de Fatim-Zhora: Ministre de la Justice'', Paris: XO Editions, 2011, pp. 197-199Frédéric Saliba
"Le pouvoir à la table du Siècle"
'' Stratégies'', issue 1365, April 14, 2005, p. 49. Membership in Le Siècle "symbolizes the French nomenklatura" and includes France's top intellectuals, politicians, chief executives, journalists, and artists; since the 1970s, one-third to half of all

French government The Government of France (French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who i ...

ministers were members of Le Siècle, regardless of political affiliation or party membership.

History

Le Siècle was founded in 1944 by Georges Bérard-Quélin, a journalist and Freemason. The small group of the 1940s and 1950s eventually expanded to include major politicians across the political spectrum, from François Mitterrand, who was close associate of Bérard-Quélin, to

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

via

Pierre Mendès France Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès France (; 11 January 190718 October 1982) was a French politician who served as prime minister of France for eight months from 1954 to 1955. As a member of the Radical Party, he headed a government supported by a co ...

. When a similar think tank called the Saint-Simon Foundation dissolved in 1999, many of its former members joined Le Siècle. Former

CFDT The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (french: link=no, Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by Laurent B ...

Secretary General Nicole Notat has served as president of Le Siècle; not only is she the first woman to serve as president, she was also the first woman to lead a trade union in France.

Membership

Membership in Le Siècle "symbolizes the French nomenklatura" and includes France's top intellectuals, politicians, chief executives, journalists, and artists. In fact, between one-third and a half of all

ministers were members of Le Siècle since the 1970s, regardless of political affiliation or party membership. That percentage peaked at 72% under

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Édouard Balladur Édouard Balladur (; born 2 May 1929) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand from 29 March 1993 to 17 May 1995. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1995 French presidential election, c ...

(1993–95). French journalist and writer Emmanuel Ratier wrote in 1996 that the club's membership controls 90% of French GDP. According to a 2011 article in '' Le Monde diplomatique'', the members of Le Siècle are predominantly: * Male (85%) * Over 55 years old (80%) * The sons of captains of industry, high-ranking public servants, or senior liberal professionals (55%) * Graduates of Institute of Political Studies (50%) and

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Deb ...

(40%) * From families with highly qualified engineers and links to significant business interests (25%) There are 580 members, subject to change every year, and 160 guests.

List of members

* Claude Bébéar, former CEO of AXA. *

Thierry Breton Thierry Breton (; born 15 January 1955) is a French business executive, politician, writer and the current Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union. Breton was vice-chairman and CEO of Groupe Bull (1996–1997), chairman and CEO o ...

, CEO of

Atos Atos is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company headquartered in Bezons, France and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and ...

, former minister of economy, finance, and industry (2005–2007). * Emmanuel Chain, former TV presenter on M6. *

Jean-Marie Colombani Jean-Marie Colombani (born 7 July 1948 in Dakar, Senegal) is a French journalist, and was the editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper ''Le Monde'' from 1994 until 2007. Biography Educated at Panthéon-Assas University and Science-Po, he is the ...

, former editor-in-chief of ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' (1994–2007). *

Jean-François Copé Jean-François Copé (; born 5 May 1964) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Meaux since 1995 with an interruption from 2002 to 2005. He was Government Spokesman between 2002 and 2007, when assumed other tenures in the government—inclu ...

, president of the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...

; member of the French National Assembly (2002-incumbent); Mayor of

Meaux Meaux () is a Communes of France, commune on the river Marne (river), Marne in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, Franc ...

(1995–2002; 2005-incumbent); former Minister of the Budget (2005–2007). * Michèle Cotta, first female member in 1983; political journalist. * Anne-Marie Couderc, CEO of Presstalis. *

Rachida Dati Rachida Dati (; ar, رشيدة داتي, link=no; born 27 November 1965) is a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament, representing Île-de-France. Prior to her election, she held the cabinet post of Keeper of the Sea ...

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

and mayor of the

7th arrondissement of Paris The 7th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''le septième''. The arrondissement, called Palais-Bourbon in a r ...

; former Minister of justice (2007–2009). * Renaud Denoix de Saint Marc, member of the

Constitutional Council of France The Constitutional Council (french: Conseil constitutionnel; ) is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958 to ensure that constitutional principles and rules ...

(2007-incumbent). * Olivier Duhamel, vice-president of Le Siècle (2010-incumbent); professor at the

Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

; former

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

(1997–2004). *

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Mar ...

, former prime minister (1984–1986). *

François Fillon François Charles Armand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a retired French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of the Republicans (previously known as the Union ...

, prime minister (2007–2012); former minister of National Education (2004–2005); former minister of social affairs (2002–2004). *

Claude Imbert Claude Imbert (born 1933) is a French philosopher, logician, and translator of Gottlob Frege. Education and career Imbert earned an agrégation in 1955 at the École normale supérieure, and is a professor emeritus of the École normale supé ...

, founding editor of '' Le Point''. *

Odile Jacob Odile Jacob is a French publisher who founded ''Les Éditions Odile Jacob'' in the middle of the 1980s. She is also a trained scientist, studying the workings of the brain, the mind and thought. She is a member of Le Siècle.Frédéric Saliba, 'L ...

, publisher. * Denis Jeambar, journalist. *

Laurent Joffrin Laurent Joffrin (born 30 June 1952) is a French journalist and the editor of the newspaper '' Libération''.

former editor-in-chief of '' Libération'' (2006–2011). *

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

, former prime minister (1997–2002), former minister of National Education (1988–1992); former minister of sport (1988–1991). *

Serge July Serge July (born 27 December 1942) is a French journalist, founder of the daily '' Libération'', and a prominent figure in French politics from the 1970s through the 1990s. In recent times, he has been active in French organizations working in s ...

, founding editor of '' Libération''. * Denis Kessler, CEO of Scor, former president of Le Siècle (2007–2010). * Étienne Lacour, secretary general of Le Siècle; editor-in-chief of the Société Générale de Presse. *

Maurice Lévy Maurice Lévy (February 28, 1838, Ribeauvillé – September 30, 1910, Paris) was a French engineer and member of the Institut de France. Lévy was born in Ribeauvillé in Alsace. Educated at the École Polytechnique, where he was a student ...

, CEO of

Publicis Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in Paris. After 1945, the little-known Paris ...

. *

Henri Loyrette Henri Loyrette (born 31 May 1952 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris) was the chairman of Admical, a French organisation dedicated to corporate philanthropy., and the former director of the Louvre Museum (2001–2013). He became first curato ...

, vice-president of Le Siècle (2010-incumbent); director of the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

(2001-incumbent). * Nicole Notat, president of Le Siècle (2010-incumbent); CEO of Vigeo; former secretary general of the

. * Michel Pébereau, CEO of BNP Paribas. *

Patrick Poivre d'Arvor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (PPDA; né Patrick Jean Marcel Poivre, ; born 20 September 1947) is a French TV journalist and writer. He is a household name in France, and nicknamed "PPDA". With over 30 years and in excess of 4,500 editions of televis ...

, newscaster on TF1. * Alain de Pouzilhac, former CEO of

Havas Havas SA is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, headquartered in Paris, France. It operates in more than 100 countries and is one of the largest advertising and communications groups in the world. Havas consists of ...

. *

David Pujadas David Pujadas (, , ; born 2 December 1964) is a French journalist and television host. A news presenter for TF1's LCI daily news programme, ''24H Pujadas,'' at 18:00 CET, he was an anchorman on France 2's weeknight newscast, ''Le Journal de ...

, TV presenter on

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...

. *

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howeve ...

, member of the

French Senate The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' a ...

; former prime minister (2002–2005). * Edouard de Rothschild. * Nicolas Sarkozy, French president (2007–2012). * Louis Schweitzer, former CEO of

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

. *

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (; born 25 April 1949), also known as DSK, is a French economist and politician who served as the tenth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was a member of the French Socialist P ...

, former managing director of the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

(2007–2011). * Marc Tessier, treasurer of Le Siècle (2010–incumbent); former chairman of

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

. * Philippe Villin, former chairman of ''

'' and ''

France Soir ''France Soir'' ( en, France Evening) was a French newspaper that prospered in physical format during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a circulation of 1.5 million in the 1950s. It declined rapidly under various owners and was relaunched as a popul ...

''. * Gérard Worms, former CEO of

N M Rothschild & Sons Rothschild & Co is a multinational investment bank and financial services company, and the flagship of the Rothschild banking group controlled by the French and British branches of the Rothschild family. The banking business of the firm covers th ...

References

External links

The official website

LeSiecle.info a website dealing with the club Le Siècle latest news
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Siecle (think tank) 1944 establishments in France Learned societies of France