The Éric Cantona bank run call of was initiated by Yann Sarfati and Arnaud Varnier, quickly joined by Géraldine Feuillien, following their viewing of an interview on the Presse-Océan website with former French football player Éric Cantona, who spoke on about “How to make a Revolution”. Relayed in France and in several other countries by groups of internet users, this call became a media phenomenon on Internet, and was then covered by traditional media in France and in several European countries. It prompted reactions, generally negative, from finance professionals (the Belgian Financial Sector Federation, the CEO of BNP Paribas, the chairman of BPCE and of the French Banking Federation), political figures (the French Minister of the Economy, Christine Lagarde, the Budget Minister François Baroin), as well as leaders of political parties (Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Cécile Duflot).

On , almost all major banking networks stated that they had observed no particular movement following the call on Facebook by Arnaud Varnier and Yann Sarfati. For his part, Éric Cantona made a symbolic withdrawal at the bank in Péronne. No quantified information on the impact of the monetary withdrawals carried out by supporters of this call for a bank run on was provided by the Agence France-Presse.

The call

Éric Cantona had suggested the possibility of carrying out a non-violent revolution through a massive withdrawal of money deposited in banks by citizens. In his view, the aim was to provoke a collapse of the banking system: The idea of provoking a bank run was launched by Arnaud Varnier and Yann Sarfati. by creating an event on Facebook a few days after watching Cantona's video in which he spoke about revolution (the video then had only a few hundred views; the buzz arose from the initiative to revive this action on a specific date). The two young men, who were already active in the Stopbanque collective, set the date for , which they considered sufficient time (one and a half months) to publicize the action and generate a buzz. They were joined by Géraldine Feuillien. a few days after the event was created. Bankrun was the main website of the movement, although it was not official. The action was also very actively taken up by Stopbanque.

Several Facebook “events” were created and translated into more than twenty languages by supporters. It was described as a citizen initiative not linked to any political movement, according to Géraldine Feuillien and Yann Sarfati, who launched a dedicated website for the occasion in order to coordinate the action and attempt to give it a global scale. Géraldine Feuillien has, however, regularly expressed sympathy on internet forums for Marine Le Pen and other figures classified on the far right.

The call received some support from intellectuals in the United States, notably economics professor Robert Prasch (Middlebury College) and Italian-American economic forecaster Gerald Celente. His compatriot, financial analyst Max Keiser, who had already in November been encouraging individuals to buy silver coins in order to target and bring down JPMorgan Chase., also invited his followers to take part in the action by emptying their accounts to buy silver or gold coins, whose prices, he claimed, were being artificially kept low by the markets.

Media phenomenon In late November, the call to withdraw personal funds deposited in banks became a media phenomenon on Internet, as the video of the appeal achieved success on video-sharing platforms.

It was followed by a withdrawal call launched on Facebook, with registered participants, the creation of dedicated websites, and the mention of the idea in numerous forum discussions.

According to the French daily Le Figaro,

At the beginning of December, the French financial daily La Tribune referred to the buzz generated by Éric Cantona's call, with hundreds of thousands of views, while also noting doubts regarding the likelihood of the project's success.

The traditional press in several European countries covered the topic. This phenomenon led to mostly negative reactions from political decision-makers. and economic actors, particularly in France.

Some media outlets raised questions about the feasibility of the action and the possibility of achieving the stated objectives. Reactions from certain press cartoonists were highly biting and caustic regarding the ongoing phenomenon.

Reaction from critical circles toward the banking system Political figures critical of the liberal economy adopted an ambivalent stance toward this call, which falls under forms of political activism outside traditional institutional frameworks and does not originate from the political sphere.

Cécile Duflot, national secretary of Europe Ecology–The Greens, stated on on the television channel Public Sénat that this call and added:

The leader of the Left Party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, stated on France Info radio on :

Olivier Besancenot, spokesperson for the NPA, emphasized that and that

The economist Frédéric Lordon, while considering a public takeover of banks by state authorities to be essential, stated that if “Cantona thinks he can make a non-violent revolution by collapsing the banks [...] it is because he has no idea of the violence of the material chaos that would follow”.

For Guillaume Duval, editor-in-chief of Alternatives économiques, For the economist Bernard Maris, while nevertheless expressing his

Reaction from public authorities Government members downplayed the call by focusing their criticism on the personality of its initiator. French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde thus rejected Éric Cantona's appeal on Wednesday : Her reaction was followed by a similar one from François Baroin, Minister of the Budget and government spokesperson, who stated on RMC radio on that the call was Roselyne Bachelot commented that Éric Cantona advertises “cars, razors” and that “his wife advertises for a banking system” (Crédit Lyonnais), concluding: “One must have a sense of responsibility in life when one is precisely one of the standard-bearers of consumer society”.

Reaction from the financial sector Reactions from financial executives took several forms.

Some highlighted the risk posed by the initiative. This was the case in the Belgian financial sector. According to the Belgian news website 7sur7.be on : , the financial sector federation Febelfin stated on Wednesday in Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard. [...] , said Michel Vermaerke, managing director of Febelfin.

Baudouin Prot, chief executive officer of BNP Paribas, the second-largest bank in the eurozone, stated on that Former investment banker Marc Fiorentino, chairman of the financial engineering firm Euroland Finance, stated in Libération on that it was

Other executives preferred to downplay the risk that such a general withdrawal movement could represent. This was notably the case of François Pérol, chairman of BPCE (France's second-largest banking group) and, at the time, of the French Banking Federation (FBF). He stated on that the call , while adding that

The deputy chief executive officer of retail banking at Société Générale stated: , adding that

The economist Philippe Waechter, director of economic studies at Natixis Asset Management (part of the BPCE group), stated on on the website of the newspaper Libération that

By contrast, reactions did not appear to be so uniformly negative on the side of bank employee trade unions. According to the secretary of the FO Banque union, in the French daily La Tribune on ,

The secretary of the National Banking Union, for his part, believed that the postponement of sector wage negotiations was due to the proximity of the date of the “Cantona call”.

The fact that the issue of bank runs remains a concern for financial institutions is illustrated by reflections on the potentially amplified impact that, in this third decade of the 21st century, the intensification of digital money transfers and calls made via social networks could have on such phenomena.

Extensions of the call Although the “empty the banks” appeal was considered, from the standpoint of its stated objective, a failure, activist organizations, such as the collective Sauvons les riches (Save the Rich) suggested continuing the movement in another form by calling for savings to be withdrawn from traditional banks in favour of ethically oriented institutions (Crédit coopératif—itself nevertheless a member of the BPCE group), La Nef) or those that were formerly public services (La Banque postale).

The call to change banks led to an increase in telephone inquiries to these institutions. According to Crédit coopératif, on the Tuesday following the call, individuals phoned to request information about opening accounts. On , the AFP reported calls.

La Nef reported a number of calls “multiplied by ten since the beginning of the week” and 200 new clients per month since the beginning of the crisis.

According to Midi Libre, Éric Cantona's call reportedly sparked “a great deal of reflection” in the “global village”.

See also List of bank runs Éric Cantona

References