Le Pen and Bardella Pledge to Slash Red Tape to 'Liberate' French Economy

Far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella pledged on Monday to "liberate" the French economy by slashing red tape and bureaucracy. "Regulations, often accumulated without real assessment of their impact, represent a staggering cost for economic actors ... [and] decrease the purchasing power of French citizens," they wrote in a joint letter to business leaders published on X.

According to the text, Le Pen and Bardella are tasking a group of National Rally officials to meet with business lobbies and organizations ahead of next year's presidential election. Their goal will be drawing up a list of "harmful" regulations to be slashed if the far right comes to power. The group will be scrutinizing both EU and French rules.

"Our objective is to develop a wide-ranging draft simplification decree, which will be published at the start of our term, to liberate the French economy and help boost production," they said.

Leading the polls ahead of the 2027 deadline, National Rally has been seeking to woo the business community. Bardella is meeting top officials from France's main business lobby MEDEF on Monday, and Le Pen met the country's richest man Bernard Arnault and other major CEOs at a dinner in Paris earlier this month.

However, business leaders are yet to be won over. According to an executive for one of the Arnault dinner's attendees, the encounter was not an opportunity to "cozy up" to Le Pen but a robust exchange of views.

Prior to this business-friendly approach, National Rally often had an inconsistent and at times confusing economic agenda. It flip-flopped over leaving the eurozone and repeatedly voted against cost-cutting measures during the 2026 budget debates while maintaining it wanted to reduce the state deficit.

But with this current push, the party is joining a trend across Europe's conservative circles looking to streamline rules and regulations in a bid to jumpstart the EU's economy.

Members of the team preparing to cut red tape include the recently appointed National Rally adviser François Durvye. Durvye previously worked for Pierre-Edouard Stérin, a billionaire using his fortune to push his libertarian, socially conservative agenda in France.