PARIS — French center-right presidential candidate Edouard Philippe accused his far-right rival Marine Le Pen of trying to force a Frexit in disguise with her euroskeptic campaign promises.

“There is something in Marine Le Pen’s proposals that has the potential to blow Europe up, or let’s say to crack it open,” Philippe said at POLITICO’s Paris Competitiveness Summit on Tuesday.

The former prime minister — who is currently the best-placed centrist candidate to challenge the front-running Le Pen, according to recent polls — said Le Pen’s plan to unilaterally demand a drastic cut to France’s contribution to the EU budget was akin to “saying you want out of Europe” without openly advocating for leaving the bloc. Le Pen had previously called for a referendum in France on leaving the EU but dropped the proposal after her crushing defeat to Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 presidential election. Her party, the National Rally, now says it wants to change the EU from within.

Philippe, a fiscal conservative who has been pitching himself as the voice of reason in a campaign dominated by populist rivals, also slammed budget plans Le Pen unveiled last week as “grotesque,” accusing her of pitching “fantasy” savings.

Le Pen’s fiscal plans have faced serious scrutiny since being presented, with many observers saying they either lack key details or overestimate savings on major proposals like immigration. Progressive think tank Terra Nova wrote in a note out Tuesday that Le Pen’s budget presentation was “riddled with errors and contradictions” as well as “botched estimates.”

“She isn’t even able to estimate the cost of the pension reform she is proposing,” Philippe said.

Le Pen said in August that her plan to bring France’s legal retirement age back down to 62 for most workers would cost €9 billion a year, and last week she said she would lay out at a later stage how she intends to fund her flagship pledge. However, the Institut Montaigne, a fiscally conservative think tank, estimated the proposal would cost €34.7 billion a year.

Philippe is hoping to convince voters that his fiscally conservative agenda is the right path in a country burdened by a ballooning public debt and a budget deficit still above 5% of gross domestic product, in breach of EU rules.

Philippe said France needed to get its finances back on track to regain credibility on the European stage after a “loss of influence” over the past few years.

Though he currently leads a crowded field of centrist candidates, Philippe’s campaign has struggled in recent weeks to gain momentum — and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is now challenging the former PM for second place in the polls. France’s presidential election goes to a runoff if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, and Le Pen’s strong poll numbers all but guarantee her a spot in the second round.

Tough on China

The former prime minister pitched a pragmatic European agenda with less regulatory burden, more focus on investment and a tougher approach to China.

Philippe had some harsh criticism for an already embattled flagship measure of the EU’s green deal, saying the 2035 combustion engine ban has been “disastrous.”

There was “a great naiveté toward China,” which ultimately benefited from Europe’s push on electric vehicles, Philippe said.

“We need to much better protect our market,” he added. “If one wants access to the European market, one has to manufacture in Europe. If a carmaker doesn’t manufacture here, then we have to slap high tariffs.”

The EU is in the process of drawing up new “Made in Europe” rules that would favor European producers over those outside the bloc, in response to trade practices by competitors like China and the United States.

Shortly before Philippe took the stage, European Commissioner for Industry Stéphane Séjourné said at the POLITICO event that a Franco-German deal trading stronger protections on the definition of Made in Europe in exchange for a loosening of combustion engine rules should be finalized “in the next few hours or in the next few days.”

On artificial intelligence, Philippe aligned himself with Macron, advocating for European sovereignty in the field and the need to regulate what he described as “an instrument of power.”

“What I see is an AI world making money for the U.S. with European savings and European data, and that bugs me,” he said.

PARIS — France’s Jordan Bardella and Spain’s Santiago Abascal are joining forces ahead of potential milestone elections in their countries, with the duo using a visit by the French far-right leader to Spain to discuss campaign strategy and common themes for their platforms.

Spaniards are heading to the polls on Nov. 29 for snap elections in which Vox, the country’s leading right-wing nationalist force, is hoping to make significant gains. The National Rally, its ally in the European Parliament, is hoping a strong performance by Vox will create broader momentum in Europe as Marine Le Pen eyes victory in next year’s French presidential race. Bardella has been working on firming up his party’s European alliances as well.

Bardella’s two-day trip to Spain began Monday with a stop in the territory of Ceuta, where a mass influx of migrants in July triggered chaos and reignited the political debate on migration, alongside Vox’s Abascal.

Standing next to Bardella in Ceuta, Abascal said the French far-right leader’s presence was “a demonstration that a new era can open for [the two] nations” and praised “collaboration among patriotic forces.”

Spain’s snap elections “will allow the Spanish people to speak their mind, just as the French presidential election in a few months will allow the French people to take back control of their own destiny,” said Bardella, framing migration as an existential issue for both countries, epitomized by the crisis in Ceuta over the summer.

The trip to Ceuta, discussed between the two leaders’ teams over the summer, was finalized after the Spanish elections were called last week. In his address, Bardella also praised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s decision to institute border checks on Spanish arrivals to Italy after the Ceuta crisis.

Vox and the National Rally are currently allied within the Patriots group in the European Parliament and are hoping to see more of their members access executive power in the coming months, as Spain, France, Poland, Italy and Greece all vote in national elections.

Vox is currently polling third at 18%, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, putting the party on track to gain a significant number of seats. A strong performance by Vox would position it as a key coalition partner for the center-right People’s Party, which is polling first.

Spain’s snap elections are “a significant milestone because a change in government is within reach,” National Rally MEP and former Frontex boss Fabrice Leggeri told POLITICO ahead of the Ceuta trip, which he attended.

On Tuesday, Abascal and Bardella are scheduled to hold closed-door meetings on their campaign strategy. They will also introduce their respective staffs and exchange ideas on key themes for their platform, including housing, according to Thibaut François, the secretary general of the National Rally delegation in Brussels and an adviser to Bardella. Both leaders “are working on their accession to [executive] power,” François said.

The men will also speak at the high-level Nueva Economía business forum in Madrid, where Abascal is invited to speak on stage for the first time.

Bardella has made a breakthrough in business circles and is now a regular guest at high-level events of this nature.

For him, the Spanish trip is also a welcome escape from the domestic controversy surrounding investigative outlet Mediapart’s reporting that he expressed antisemitic views in private messages when he was 17. The French far-right leader has repeatedly denied the accusations.

Sarah Paillou contributed to this report.

PARIS — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen offered her usual recipe for pulling the French economy from the brink of a debt crisis when she presented her plan Tuesday: curbing immigration, cutting contributions to the European Union and slashing red tape.

“If the French do not choose a political about-face, France will head toward default,” Le Pen said at a lengthy press conference at her National Rally party’s headquarters.

Le Pen spent much of her opening speech attacking what she called President Emmanuel Macron’s “disastrous track record” on the economy. For her, the event was an opportunity to cast herself as a responsible steward of the economy as France’s public finances fall deeper into the red, and erase a tumultuous week that saw her protégé, Party President Jordan Bardella, accused of authoring antisemitic views in his youth.

But critics were quick to argue her plan lacked crucial detail on one of her most costly campaign pledges: the promise to bring back France’s legal retirement age to 62, which is currently set to increase to 64. 

Bardella, who stood by her at the press conference, struggled to draw a line under the antisemitism allegations that have been leveled at him. Le Pen left him to face the rolling barrage of questions about his alleged antisemitic Facebook messages and his ability to continue the campaign. 

On stage, the duo presented their counter-proposal for next year’s budget, about to be negotiated in Parliament, as well as Le Pen’s proposed five-year, cost-cutting package. The far-right leader hinted she was ready to be more lenient towards the government this time around and not topple it during upcoming budget negotiations.

“As imperfect as it is, the pressure [from financial markets] is such that we can’t afford to have blanket red lines … knowing that this budget will only apply until the election and that we can amend it afterwards,” she said in answer to a question.

She also promised €140 billion in net savings over the course of a five-year term, if she is elected president. “If investors only lend at exorbitant rates, our state and our social system will collapse,” she said.

Le Pen’s proposal to cut €19.5 billion from France’s EU contributions by 2031 is bound to set up a showdown with Brussels. The party’s counter-budget proposal for 2027 includes an €11.1 billion cut in France’s gross contribution to the bloc as early as next year.

Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a National Rally lawmaker widely seen as a contender for economy minister should Le Pen win next year’s presidential election, said that Le Pen and her party would ramp up pressure for a fundamental rethink of EU priorities, rather than just renegotiating the country’s annual contribution.

“We are not only asking for a rebate; we are asking for the cancellation of entire programs,” Tanguy said, citing EU foreign policy initiatives but also EU funds deployed within pre-accession programs.

During past presidential campaigns, Le Pen and the National Rally have been criticized for floating unrealistic and unfunded proposals that lack important details. They’ve also been accused of inflating savings in some proposals — meaning the numbers unveiled Tuesday will likely be heavily scrutinized.

Center-right presidential hopeful Edouard Philippe lampooned her plan Tuesday as being “spectacularly flippant”.

“To make savings, you make up billions. But reality will always catch up with you. What you offer does not add up,” he wrote. 

Devil is in the details

Le Pen said slashing immigration would save €15 billion in the first year of her presidency, and €14 billion in the second. 

She also said reorganizing France’s social security system would bring in a staggering €36.7 billion over five years, which also needs to absorb the cost of her flagship pension promise.

In August, Le Pen doubled down on her past pledge to lower the age of retirement back to 62, which she says will come at a cost of €9 billion per year. But that number is largely seen as an underestimation, with fiscally conservative think tank Institut Montaigne putting it at €34.7 billion.

Le Pen said other, yet undefined changes to the pension system would save €15–20 billion, promising to lay out its plans in detail at a later stage.

Hadrian Camatte, a specialist with the French investment bank Natixis, said Le Pen was being “overly-optimistic” and that the National Rally’s plan to cut billions on state spending was “massive, huge.”

“It will be very complicated if even [the party] are very aggressive regarding state agencies or state bodies,” he said. 

She said she would put a so-called fiscal “golden rule” to a referendum, which would bind lawmakers and the government in setting the budget, similar to the way the German debt brake works.

Le Pen’s version would instead require successive governments to reduce France’s public debt as a share of gross domestic product each year until it reaches 60% — nearly half its current level. In practical terms, France could still run budget deficits, provided they are small enough for the debt burden to keep falling relative to the size of the economy.

Le Pen also said that she planned to introduce a funded component into the pension system, under which a worker’s contributions are invested for their future retirement rather than paying for current retirees — a proposal that had been pushed by the National Rally’s more pro-business wing.

A pair under pressure

Sold as a winning ticket, the Bardella-Le Pen duo came under intense scrutiny during their second public appearance Tuesday when the antisemitism allegations were leveled against the party president. 

Le Pen, the front-runner in the race to replace Macron next year, did not rush to Bardella’s defense during the press conference, declining to respond to the allegations. Instead she launched into a defense of another National Rally official Jean-François Jalkh, who has faced accusations of Holocaust denial. 

Bardella meanwhile went on the offensive: “I imagine you would have loved to see me bow down, but that’s because you don’t know me,” he said. 

He accused Mediapart, which published the report, of trying to dig up dirt on him by asking his former classmates to send screenshots of private conversations when he was as young as 12.

“I won’t accuse you of perversity, others will judge, but it doesn’t look like your little operation is having an impact in the country,” he said.

Bardella also said his party was looking into taking legal action against Mediapart.