The New York Times reports:

As France elects thousands of mayors this Sunday, one of the most influential players is not on the ballot.

His name is Pierre-Édouard Stérin. He is a billionaire entrepreneur who left France 14 years ago to pay less tax, but has since spent millions, he said in an interview, to “ensure France doesn’t disappear.”

Inspired, he said, by George Soros’s support for liberal causes, Mr. Stérin has steered money to right-wing think tanks, political training programs, social media influencers and nonprofit groups to shape the country according to his beliefs — anti-immigrant, free-market, less Islamic and more Catholic.

One program funded by Mr. Stérin has, by his count, trained at least 4,000 right-wing candidates in the municipal elections. With the far-right National Rally party projected to potentially win the presidency next year, Mr. Stérin is striving to accelerate France’s rightward shift.

“I dream of a France that is once again economically powerful and a France that rediscovers a sense of values, that embraces its Christian roots,” Mr. Stérin, 52, said.

The France of Mr. Stérin’s dreams would be more capitalistic, socially conservative and Trumpian — and to his critics, racist. It would tolerate little immigration, particularly from Muslim countries that France colonized. Undocumented immigrants who commit crimes or do not work would be deported. Muslim dress would be banned in public, and halal food no longer served in schools.

“I am even further to the right than the far right on immigration,” said Mr. Stérin, who also considers the National Rally’s economic program too “statist.” [Continue reading…]