Périclès

Périclès (also known as the Projet Périclès) is a French think tank, incubator and funding organisation created by businessman Pierre-Édouard Stérin. It was declared as an association under the French law of 1901 with the Paris prefecture in July 2023 and delegated to Philippe de Gestas in November 2023. The name is presented as an acronym for Patriotes / Enracinés / Résistants / Identitaires / Chrétiens / Libéraux / Européens / Souverainistes. The project was commissioned by Stérin and his associates, including François Durvye, and is described as aiming to secure an ideological and political victory for an alliance between the French far right and the liberal conservative right. It is largely inspired by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 in the United States. On its public website, Périclès presents itself as an organisation that "suscites, advises and finances citizen initiatives", positioning itself outside the electoral and partisan field. It describes three complementary axes: building entrepreneurial projects by hosting project leaders and providing human, financial and methodological resources; supporting existing projects in their development to help them scale up; and financing external initiatives with high added value. The site lists an annual investment figure, incubated and launched projects in 2024, and supported initiatives in 2024, though the exact numbers are not fully legible in the available snippet. The team is composed of profiles from entrepreneurship, investment, strategy consulting and public affairs. Arnaud Rérolle is the directeur général (general director), Thibault Cambournac is responsible for strategy, and Maxime Hemery is chief of staff. The project first formed part of the Fonds du bien commun. In 2024, to protect that fund from legal or reputational repercussions, it became an independent project with a parent association Périclès, a endowment fund presided over by Périclès, and an operational and financing association presided over by Périclès. At that time it had four completed recruitments and four ongoing recruitments. The existence of the underlying report was revealed in April 2024 by La Lettre, and in July 2024 L'Humanité published the full content of its roughly twenty-page executive summary dated autumn 2023. Stérin then publicly announced the project and Le Journal du dimanche reported on it. In 2025 the project launched a public website reproducing most of the information from the 2023 document. The project's stated values include individual liberty and freedom of enterprise, private property, subsidiarity, "the true, the good, the beautiful", the family as the basis of society, the special place of Christianity, rootedness in a terroir, pride in history, identity and culture, and unity, cohesion and confidence. It says it combats hyper-statism, socialism and welfarism, liberticidal laws, wokism, the refusal of limits, aggressive secularism, the refusal of national preference, Islamism and uncontrolled immigration. Its objectives are described as ideological victory (promoting its values and shifting the Overton window through audiovisual production, opinion leaders and social media influencers, and discrediting opposing ideas), electoral victory (acting on priority elections, training candidates in strategy and political communication, and providing tools including financing, media and human resources), and political victory (preparing for the successful exercise of power at the next electoral deadline with a shadow cabinet and a white paper for the 2026 municipal elections). In autumn 2025, the press reported that the project was in difficulty. According to Libération, money was lacking and supported projects complained that transfers were no longer arriving or were very late; the newspaper spoke of a "hecatomb of financing".

The Périclès project was initiated by French businessman Pierre-Édouard Stérin. Before the 2022 presidential election, Stérin met several political figures including François-Xavier Bellamy, Bruno Retailleau, Virginie Calmels, David Lisnard, Marion Maréchal and Éric Zemmour. He stated that from the age of fifty he wanted to focus on his societal project, saying he wanted to devote his entire fortune to "the recovery of France and the promotion of Christ". He therefore chose to create a think tank, Périclès, an association under the French law of 1901 declared with the Paris prefecture in July 2023, which he delegated to Philippe de Gestas in November 2023. The Périclès project was officially commissioned by Pierre-Édouard Stérin and his employees such as François Durvye. Marguerite Frison-Roche, Pierre Valentin and Emmanuel Fontan were also involved. The electoral component was coordinated by Arnaud Rérolle. It was inspired by American religious and libertarian movements that contributed to Donald Trump's re-election in the 2024 presidential election. Arnaud Rérolle notably exchanged with members of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025. He also made a study trip to Viktor Orbán's Hungary. The project first formed part of the Fonds du bien commun. In 2024, to protect the Fonds du bien commun from legal or reputational repercussions, it became an independent project with a parent association Périclès, an endowment fund presided over by Périclès, and an operational and financing association presided over by Périclès. It then had four completed recruitments and four ongoing recruitments. The existence of the report was revealed in April 2024 by the newspaper La Lettre, and in July of the same year, L'Humanité published the full content of its roughly twenty-page executive summary dated autumn 2023. Pierre-Édouard Stérin then publicly announced the existence of the project and Le Journal du dimanche reported on it. In 2025, the project acquired a public website where it reproduced most of the information from the document published in 2023. The document and its spokespersons stated they wanted to professionalise the right from Horizons to Reconquête. In autumn 2025, the press indicated that the project was in difficulty. According to Libération, money was lacking, and the projects helped complained: "transfers no longer arrive, or very late". The newspaper spoke of a "hecatomb of financing". Arnaud Rérolle, director of Périclès, responded that there was nothing abnormal, explaining that support for projects could be interrupted if the projects did not reach expected objectives. But the press indicated that Otium Capital, Pierre-Édouard Stérin's investment fund, was in financial difficulty, with a liquidity problem and a debt of 400 million euros. Libération indicated that a senior executive of the fund confirmed that Périclès's money comes from Otium and that the reduction in available cash leads to "arbitrages and prioritising projects". Libération estimated that the promise to spend 150 million euros over a decade could not be kept.

• Périclès declared as an association under the French law of 1901 with the Paris prefecture.

• Project delegated to Philippe de Gestas.

• Project becomes independent from the Fonds du bien commun, with a parent association, endowment fund and operational association.

• La Lettre reveals the existence of the Périclès report.

• L'Humanité publishes the full executive summary of the report.

• Public website launched.

• Press reports financial difficulties and funding cuts.

A non-partisan, non-electoral organisation that funds and advises civic and entrepreneurial initiatives to promote a conservative, right-wing ideological and political shift in France.

• Incubator for entrepreneurial projects

  Hosts project leaders and provides human, financial and methodological resources.

• Support for scaling existing projects

  Accompanies existing projects in their development to help them change scale.

• Financing of external initiatives

  Finances external initiatives with high added value.

1. 1Vos idées, notre puissance d’action - Pericles Francepericlesfrance.org
2. 2Wikidata Q131386757wikidata.org
3. 3Projet Périclès - Wikipédiafr.wikipedia.org