President Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who won a first mandate in 2017 on a promise to be neither of the left nor the right, is projected in voter surveys to win a second term in against a resurgent Marine Le Pen, but the margin is tight.
Here are his main policy proposals
ECONOMY
* Raise the minimum pension age to 65 from 62 currently
* Require 15-20 hrs/week of training for welfare benefit recipients
* Cut taxes by 15 billion euros with half for households and the rest for businesses.
* Further loosen labour market rules and reform unemployment insurance to make payments vary according to the state of the economy
* Raise the threshold over which inheritance tax kicks in from 100,000 euros to 150,000 euros
EUROPE, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
* Make the European Union more self-sufficient in defence, agriculture, energy and strategic economic sectors
* Strengthen the capacities of national European armies, increase co-ordination between them and create a "common military doctrine"
* Create European industrial champions including a "European metaverse"
* Reform the European electricity market
IMMIGRATION & SECURITY
* Make long-term residence permits conditional on a French exam and employment
* Expel foreign trouble-makers
* Create a rapid-action force to restore order in troubled banlieues
* Broader scope for on-the-spot-fines for petty crime
ENERGY
* Build six new nuclear reactors and launch studies for another eight, increase solar energy capacity tenfold, build 50 wind farms at sea by mid-century
* Take control of certain energy companies, suggesting that the government would revive stalled plans to buy out minority shareholders in nuclear utility EDF
* Renovate 700,000 homes a year
* Leasing scheme to make electric vehicles more accessible
(Compiled by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough)
