The National Regroupment (RN) is aware of the anxiety caused by the possibility of the extreme right coming to power in France, which is why it seeks to make its program more digestible for a majority. The candidate for prime minister, Jordan Bardella, has begun to unveil a government plan that attempts to calm the concerns of citizens and especially the financial sector in the face of the shock that his arrival to power could entail. Bardella assures that he will delay for a few months measures that until now he described as a priority, such as the repeal of the pension reform or VAT cuts on essential products.
Faced with the fear aroused by his vision on immigration and the integration of Muslims, the RN candidate has announced that he will repeal, at least until 2027, the year of the presidential elections, symbolic measures such as the ban on wearing the Islamic veil in public. However, he maintains his intention to apply a tough line on security and the fight against crime as soon as he comes to power, a hallmark of his party that appeals to his regular voters and attracts new ones.
“I am going to inherit a financial situation of almost bankruptcy,” Bardella summarized. “Consequently, my obligation is to put order in the streets of the country, but also in the accounts of the State.” Another hallmark of the RN, Euroscepticism, is evident in the proposal to reduce the French contribution to the European Union as a way of paying for the national tax cuts it promises.
In separate interviews since Monday, Bardella, 28, also claims to feel “prepared” to govern France, although he has never held a position in any government. But he demands an “absolute majority” at the polls to become prime minister and be able to implement his entire program. If this situation were to arise, the pro-European and liberal Emmanuel Macron would have to govern France alongside a eurosceptic and far-right prime minister.
The absolute majority, however, is by no means assured, despite its advantage in the polls. Another possibility is that the majority is relative, which would hinder their ability to govern. “If tomorrow the French put the country in a situation of relative majority, that is, in a situation of blockade, with a prime minister who does not have an absolute majority, we will not be able to change things,” he justified. “I don’t want to be a collaborator of the president.”
Bardella’s statements have provoked the immediate response of Macronism, which accuses him of using excuses for not implementing a government program that, they claim, is economically and even socially impracticable.
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Bardella knows that if he wants to be able to occupy Matignon, the seat of the French head of government, he needs votes beyond his niche, and this requires dispelling doubts. Difficult thing when the RN continues without revealing a complete government program. Although the electoral advance decided by Macron has caught everyone, even the Macronists, off guard, at least the New Popular Front that brings together the left has already presented a catalog of 150 measures.
Little is known about the extreme right’s program, and it is significant that its leader, Marine Le Pen,’s plan for the 2022 presidential elections is still presented on the party’s website. What is known is what its leaders are breaking down, and Bardella, in the last hours, has offered some advances.
Economic reforms
In a nod to the economic sector that views him with distrust, Bardella has said in interviews with the newspaper Le Parisian and the CNews network that does not plan to enter the Government like a steamroller. On the contrary, his idea is to act in two stages: first “emergency” measures, to be implemented since he assumes the head of Government this summer, and a subsequent “time of reforms.”
This second moment would begin in the fall and it would not be until then that the controversial pension reform that Macron had to approve by decree and which increases the retirement age in France from 62 to 64 would be repealed. The measure sparked some of the strongest social protests against the Macronist government, but its possible withdrawal now worries the business and economic world.
Last week, Bardella considered that the repeal of the pension reform was no longer as high a priority as his party had been claiming until then. But in the face of criticism among his voters, he now promises again that he will repeal it “because it is economically ineffective and socially unjust,” although he did not present a specific calendar.
The promise to eliminate VAT on essential products is also put on hold for now. “It will be done in a second time,” the candidate clarifies. And it also conditions a “financial audit” on the state of the country’s accounts on the promises to improve the “salary level” of sectors such as education or health that did appear in the presidential elections two years ago, in which Marine Le Pen stayed at the gates of the Elysée.
“The presidential project remains, but I am extremely realistic about the financial state of the country. “I am not going to sell the French measures just to please them,” he maintains. Among the issues that he remains silent on is the proposal to privatize public services, including the media. On the contrary, Bardella does maintain as immediate the measure of reducing VAT on energy (electricity, gas and fuel) and fuel from 20% to 5.5%, for which he promises to act this summer if the RN is made. with power.
To finance these measures, which cost around 12 billion euros, the candidate proposes combating social fraud and cutting aid to immigrants such as the suspension of health aid, so that “it only covers vital emergencies.”
The aspiring prime minister also intends to dip into the EU’s piggy bank. He has been an MEP for five years, and has just been re-elected, so he should know the European machinery well. And yet, he proposes reducing France’s contribution to the EU budget by €2 billion, forgetting that it is not a measure that a country can do unilaterally. Although France is one of the net contributors to Brussels, it is also one of the main beneficiaries of its aid, especially agricultural aid, a sector of which the RN claims to be a defender.
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