A second round runoff between hard-left French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen would be the “worst-case scenario” for France, the chief executive of Publicis, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, has said.
“The worst nightmare you can imagine is a second round where you have Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. That is the worst-case scenario,” he said, speaking to CNBC moments after the release of disappointing first-quarter results for the French multinational agency.
The business saw organic revenues decline by 1.2 percent in the first three months of the year. This was a slight improvement on analyst predictions, however, which forecast a slide of 1.8 percent. Nonetheless, the firm expects to see continued declines until the second half of 2017, when Levy says it will be “up and running” and return to normal growth.
Political uncertainty has had a direct impact on results, Levy said Thursday, saying that businesses had been holding off on investment in the hope that the volatility will pass.
