Pierre-Edouard Stérin, the patron saint of the far right

What do the weekend at a spa in Calvados offered to your sweetheart for their birthday, the membership you already took out at a sports club (back-to-school resolution required), delicate cat food, the handbag that only comes out of the closet for special occasions, or the last bowling night where you made a fool of yourself with your friends have in common? In the order of purchases or leisure activities mentioned, the companies Smartbox , Dynamo cycling, Caats, Polène, and Speedpark belong or have belonged to this man: Pierre-Edouard Stérin, a 51-year-old French businessman born in Evreux. It is thanks to the success of the first brand mentioned, Smartbox, that he became a billionaire. And a little known one. He is much more so today, for a completely different reason: his desire to contribute, thanks to his money, to the rise to power in France of the extreme right. Pierre-Edouard Stérin is something of a second cousin of Vincent Bolloré, embarking on the same political adventure, the Breton billionaire having chosen to invest in the media to further his agenda. The two men also jointly sponsored a gala evening at the Casino de Paris in June, with Eric Ciotti, Jordan Bardella, Sarah Knafo, and Marion Maréchal as guest stars.

Pierre-Edouard Stérin deserves credit for playing his cards on the table and embracing his identity and Christian profile, with its reactionary ideas. He claims the extremist patriotism that guides him in his desire to serve "Christ and France." But while Pierre-Edouard Stérin's political enterprise is now well-known, the companies that serve it are much less so . It is therefore into this galaxy of companies, stakes, sales, and philanthropic financing of this businessman—who is also a tax exile—that the investigations we are publishing today delve. Pierre-Edouard Stérin, or the hidden face of a business serving the far right.