News
French Prime Minister promises increase in domestic finances to fend off far right and left
By Elizabeth Pineau and Leigh Thomas
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance would cut energy bills, ease inheritance tax and link pensions to inflation if it won an early election, the prime minister said, seeking to counter the far right and a new leftist bloc.
The ruling Together alliance is the underdog in the parliamentary vote, which Macron called after suffering a drubbing at the hands of the far-right National Rally (RN) in this month’s European elections.
Early legislative elections will take place in two rounds, on June 30th and July 7th. Macron’s camp presents itself as a bulwark of democratic values and prudent economic management, protecting the nation from profligate extremists on both flanks.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said policies advocated by both the RN and a renamed coalition of left-wing parties known as the Popular Front would lead to mass unemployment.
“We are not going to make a leap into the unknown from a great height without a parachute,” he said at a press conference.
The RN and the Popular Front, setting up their own tents at an event organized by Medef, an employers’ organization, both presented themselves as responsible economic managers, seeking to refute the attacks from Macron’s camp.
“I think that overall our budget deficit will not be worse than what the current government predicts,” said Eric Coquerel, from the far-left France Insubmissa party, representing the Popular Front.
RETIREMENT AGE
Coquerel said the extra spending promised by the bloc on measures such as lowering the retirement age would be financed by stronger economic growth and higher tax revenues from the rich.
RN President Jordan Bardella, who would likely be prime minister if the far-right party won a majority in the election, told Medef he would present a revised budget for 2024 over the summer, and measures would include cutting taxes on companies’ production.
Seeking to strike a reassuring tone after the prospect of his party gaining power unnerved financial markets, Bardella said the state of France’s public finances meant the next government would have to be realistic and responsible.
“I understood that I need to reassure people,” he said. “I want to get back to budgetary sanity.”
Fighting for the centre, Attal said the ruling party’s number one priority was to help families with their purchasing power, through measures such as lower electricity bills, linking pensions to inflation and helping first-time home buyers .
“There will be no tax increase no matter what,” he said.
Turning to foreign policy, Attal said the far right would threaten France’s place in the European Union and its support for Ukraine, risking “submission to Russia”, and portrayed the left as rebellious and disorderly, predicting the diplomatic “cacophony” was overcome.
“Europe and the world are watching us,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Benoit Van Overstraeten; writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Richard Lough and Janet Lawrence)