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.
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