The far-right, anti-immigration National Rally has published its policy priorities ahead of this weekend’s first round of snap legislative elections. Leader Jordan Bardella has promised to restore order in France, curb immigration and address the cost-of-living crisis.
"In three words: we are ready," the 28-year-old president of the National Rally (RN) told a press conference as he unveiled his party's programme on Monday.
Bardella has promised, if elected, to boost France’s purchasing power, bring back authority to schools and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.
He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for foreigners born on French soil to gain citizenship.
He also reiterated statements he made last week that he would table a bill to lower VAT on energy from 20 percent to 5.5 percent immediately upon taking office, and renegotiate French energy costs with the European Union.
Recent polls suggest Bardella will come out ahead in Sunday's legislative elections – and possibly become prime minister.
'National priority'
The party’s platform, published on its website Monday, said employers would be allowed to raise salaries by ten percent without paying social charges for five years.
Bardella said the programme is “calculated and reasonable”, but he did not give specific numbers, insisting that the €12 billion budget deficit created by cutting VAT would be covered by closing tax loopholes and cutting social benefits to foreigners.
A cornerstone of the RN’s policy is the idea of “national priority” for social benefits, reserving them only for French people.
“Reducing social spending through putting in place national priority,” is one of the points in the party's detailed programme.
“It's not a redistribution from the richer to the poorer via tax increases or via state policy in the economy,” explains Romeric Godin, an economic reporter for the investigative website Mediapart, referring to the RN’s economic proposals, which are sometimes characterised as leftist because they are redistributive in nature.
“They redistribute through ‘national preference’, which is a redistribution along ethnic and national criteria, which is a discriminatory policy.”
This policy, he says, probably would not hold up under France’s current legal framework, but the RN says it would implement it “if necessary by a constitutional referendum”.
More from Romeric Godin and others imagining a far-right government in France, in the Spotlight on France podcast:
But redistributing social charges paid to foreigners will not cover the budget deficits facing France or create growth, any more than the current government policies, Godin points out.
He sees an RN-run economy as one of austerity, similar to that imposed by the current government, with the difference being that “the austerity will be harder for foreigners, for migrants, and not for the French".
“This kind of ethnic and national redistribution is very attractive for some people who think it's a solution to their problem,” he says.
“And that's a great success of the National Rally – to make people think that, in fact, making foreigners poorer will make them richer.”
Buying time with an audit
Many of the spending proposals put forward by Bardella and the RN are predicated on an audit of the country’s finances, planned as of July, which would determine what can (and cannot) be done.
“That's a traditional way to say ‘We can't implement some promises we made before, because public finances are not in order’,” says Godin, sceptical that the RN will be able to deliver.
The party, which during former leader Marine Le Pen’s 2022 presidential campaign addressed more social issues, is setting itself up to backtrack, if needed.
It has already done so regarding pensions.
Before 2022, it promised to would roll back the retirement age to 60 and while Bardella still promises to revise Macron's pension reform, he has lowered his ambitions.
Only those who began working aged 20 or under would be allowed to retire at 60 while those who have paid into the system for 40 years would be allowed to retire as young as 62.
The issue will be addressed later in the year, according to the party platform.
For Godin, the economic audit offers a way out: “They can say that if the report on France’s public finances is very bad, they will not do it in the autumn, or at all.”
Imagining a far-right government in France, in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 113, listen here.
