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Reuters
Reuters
Business
Richard Lough

Factbox-France's hardleft Melenchon promises guaranteed jobs, capital controls

FILE PHOTO: Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of far-left opposition La France Insoumise (France Unbowed - LFI) political party and candidate for the 2022 French presidential election, gestures as holds a L'Union populaire (popular union) political campaign meeting, an "immersive" and "olfactory" experience for his supporters, in Nantes, France, January 16, 2022. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

Jean-Luc Melenchon, a hardleft veteran and longtime admirer of the late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan former president Hugo Chavez, is polling third in France's presidential race.

Here are his main policy proposals

ECONOMY

* Freeze the prices of gas, petrol and food in short term

* Raise the minimum wage to 1,400 euros net per month

* Lower retirement age to 60, with a minimum pension of 1,000 euros per month

* Restore disbanded wealth tax and impose levy on polluters

* Guaranteed employment for longterm jobless

* Impose controls on capital movements

EUROPE, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

* Withdraw from NATO

* Use veto in EU to block new free trade agreements, as well as enlargement without social and fiscal alignment

* Offer asylum to whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange

* Renegotiate the Touquet accord, which gives Britain a border in France

ENERGY

* End market determination of energy prices with a price stability guarantee

* Scrap plans for new EPR nuclear plants

* End nuclear and fossil fuel-generated power by 2050

INSTITUTIONAL

*Enter into a Sixth Republic, handing more power to parliament and reducing presidential powers

*Lower voting age to 16

*Allow citizens to trigger a referendum changing the constitution or proposing a new law if support threshhold met

(Compiled by Richard Lough; Editing by Ingrid Melander)

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