A French billionaire who moved to Belgium more than a decade ago has stirred controversy in France with his reported funding of right-wing causes and contentious views on social issues.
Pierre-Édouard Stérin has an estimated wealth of €1.6 billion, making him the 81st richest Frenchman, according to Challenges magazine. He claims to have launched his career as an entrepreneur with €5,000 in his pocket – a gift from his parents.
After starting a number of unsuccessful businesses, Stérin finally hit the jackpot by partnering with a Belgian entrepreneur to create Smartbox, a gift box provider specialising in weekend breaks. From there, he developed online restaurant booking platform The Fork and Otium Capital, an investment firm.
In 2012, following the election of socialist François Hollande as French president, Stérin moved to Belgium. Hollande imposed a 75% tax rate on earnings above €1m, prompting a number of the country’s wealthier residents to move overseas.
Stérin said at the time that it would be “criminal to continue to fatten the French state”.
Shaping French society?
The billionaire, who is married with five children, continues to reside in Wallonia, close to Waterloo.
But his self-imposed exile from France has not stopped him from trying to shape the country’s politics and society – so much so that he has been dubbed the “French Elon Musk” by The Times, in reference to Musk's decision to bankroll US President Donald Trump's successful bid for the White House in 2024.
Last year, L'Humanité revealed Stérin's “cultural battle plan” for France, known as ‘Pericles’. In a strategy document published by the French daily, 'Pericles' sets out how to bring to power an alliance between France’s extreme right and the traditional centre-right.
According to the document, the strategy will "save France" by achieving an "ideological, electoral and political victory" in the face of France's "main evils", listed as “socialism, wokeism, Islamism and immigration”.
Over the next decade, Stérin reportedly intends to use ‘Pericles’ to invest €150 million in a variety of political projects – ranging from a think tank to a training college for right-wing mayoral candidates.
Stérin has been open about his intentions. Writing in Le Figaro last year, he said: “I cannot bring myself to see this Mélenchonised left [a reference to far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon] lead the cultural battle without encountering resistance from the right-wing forces which, for 50 years, have been bowing down.”
Much of his rhetoric has echoes of the views expressed by ‘national conservatives’ in the US and UK. He is anti-abortion and pro-natalist.
In June, he addressed a conference organised by a traditionalist Catholic group and said France’s priority should be to “have more babies of European descent". He told the audience: “Get married young and have as many babies as possible. Spread a positive image of the family.”
In recent months, his political donations have come under close scrutiny. After making significant donations to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, he has been accused of breaching rules on election campaign financing. According to Le Monde this has prompted a judicial investigation. Stérin denies any wrongdoing.
Saintly ambitions
Stérin’s ambitions extend far beyond the limits of French politics. In a 2022 podcast, he said he would like to be canonised.
As a starting point for this, he spends a reported €80 million a year funding Catholic charities. He has vowed to give away his fortune in his lifetime and disinherit his children, arguing that they will be “much freer and much happier if they start their professional life from scratch”.
In a recent interview with France Inter, Stérin said: “For a very long time, my goal was purely material. Today, the goal is completely different...What interests me is to earn more money to try to finance more beautiful projects that work in the right direction to pull France upwards.”
