PARIS — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen offered her usual recipe for pulling the French economy from the brink of a sovereign debt crisis when she presented her economic platform on Tuesday: curbing immigration, cutting France’s 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. Seated alongside her was party president Jordan Bardella, who during the press conference again denied allegations that he sent antisemitic remarks on Facebook Messenger as a teenager. Bardella accused the outlet that published the report, Mediapart, of trying to dig up dirt on him by asking former classmates of his 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.
Le Pen, the front-runner in the race to replace Macron next year, let Bardella do most of the talking in his defense. For her, the event was an opportunity to cast herself as a responsible steward of the French economy as France’s debt continues to pile up, growth stagnates and borrowing costs rise. On Tuesday she promised €140 billion in net savings over the course of a five-year presidential term.
“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 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 the savings in some of their proposals — meaning the numbers unveiled Tuesday will likely be heavily scrutinized.
Le Pen said slashing immigration would save €15 billion during the first year of her potential presidency, and €14 billion in the second. She also said reorganizing France’s social security system would bring in €36.7 billion over five years — though in August she proposed lowering the age of retirement to 62 at a cost of €9 billion per year. She also said that streamlining the French pension system would save €15 billion to €20 billion.
She said she would put to a referendum what she called a fiscal “golden rule” — though her proposal differs from what economists traditionally mean by the term.
Le Pen’s version — also outlined in an opinion piece — would instead require successive governments to reduce France’s public debt as a share of gross domestic product each year until it reaches 60 percent — nearly half its current level. In practical terms, France could still run budget deficits, provided they were 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.
