From Emmanuel Macron to Yannick Jadot, Paris Match has analyzed the economic and social measures proposed by the main competitors. Inventory and decryption.
Long relegated far from the central themes of the 2022 presidential campaign, behind safety and health, the economy has returned to the heart of the debates with the rise of fears around purchasing power and the uncertainties resulting from the war in Ukraine: crisis energy, inflation… It took the home stretch, and the announcement, on March 17, of candidate Macron’s program, to be able to duly compare the offer of applicants to the Élysée. This analysis focuses on the programs of the six candidates who benefit from more than 5% of voting intentions in our Ifop-Fiducial/Paris Match barometer. We will therefore escape the project of Nathalie Arthaud (Lutte Ouvrière) of expropriation of large fortunes and the companies they hold or the establishment of a peasant ticket, a sort of meal voucher to favor short circuits dear to Jean Lassalle.
Basically, there are few surprises. Everyone plays their part. The left does social work in high doses. Jean-Luc Mélenchon goes all out with retirement at 60, the minimum wage and the minimum old age raised to 1,400 euros and even a 90% tax bracket for the richest. With his citizen income, Yannick Jadot recycles Benoît Hamon’s universal income and announces a “decarbonized” and “denuclearized” France from 2030. In unison, Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour oscillate between Colbertism and protectionism. “In the case of the Reconquest candidate! it’s even… Trumpism: liberal on the domestic level and protectionist on the international level”, details Alain Trannoy, professor at the Aix-Marseille School of Economics and member of the Circle of Economists. As illustrated by the proposal to establish a “homeland-score” to indicate the French origin of the product.
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I don’t see anything in the programs that takes very small businesses into account
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Valérie Pécresse announces a very “Fillon 2017 revival” program (a tone below, however) which aims to eliminate 150,000 civil servant positions and save 45 billion euros in public spending per year. And Emmanuel Macron does Emmanuel Macron. A blow to the right with retirement at 65. A blow to the left with the minimum old age increased to 1,100 euros per month. “But there is always a great forgotten: the VSEs, analyzes Olivier Pastré, professor of economics at the University of Paris 8. are still not helped to deal with their number one plague, over-indebtedness. I don’t see anything in the programs that takes them into account. »
Candidates remain unclear on spending cuts
The fight against deficits, postponed to 2026 or 2027, is not very present in the campaign, unlike pensions, a divisive theme. The age limit oscillates between 60 years with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and 65 years for Emmanuel Macron and Valérie Pécresse. On the funding side, the candidates are getting wet. They venture, for the most part, to a figure: 50 billion per year for Emmanuel Macron, 60 billion for Éric Zemmour; 250 billion euros in expenditure and 267 billion in revenue for Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “Marine Le Pen, she does not even bother to quantify the cost of tax relief or additional expenditure,” notes Alain Trannoy.
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In general, if the candidates are very talkative about tax cuts, they remain vague about the reduction in spending. As if, after “whatever it takes” and resilience, the wide-open spending tap became the permanent driver of economic policies for the 2022-2027 period.
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Yannick Jadot relaunches the universal wage
• Exit from nuclear power. Shutdown of ten nuclear reactors by 2035. Development of wind turbines and photovoltaics: 12,000 wind turbines by 2027.
• Prohibition of the sale of new vehicles running on fossil fuel from 2030.
• Prohibition of domestic flights when there is an alternative and stop of major rail projects.
• Implementation of equal pay between women and men.
• Construction of 700,000 social housing units by 2027 and minimum rate of HLM in municipalities raised to 30%, compared to 25% today.
• Generalization of social water pricing.
• Maintenance of the legal retirement age at 62 years.
• Guarantee of an income above the poverty line for the elderly, ie 1,063 euros.
• Increase in the minimum wage to 1,500 euros net at the end of the five-year term.
• Reduction of working time: 32 hours or four-day week.
• Establishment of a citizen’s income of 740 euros per month from the age of 18.
• Recruitment of 200,000 people in public services.
• 10,000 police officers, 100,000 nurses, 65,000 school teachers, 8,000 to 10,000 university teachers, etc.
• Reduction of VAT to 0% on products from organic farming.
• Modulation of VAT on energy products for ecological purposes.
Marine Le Pen in social patriotism mode
• Creation of a ministry dedicated to the fight against fraud.
• Establishment of a “French sovereign fund” to finance national companies.
• Establishment of national preference for French companies in public procurement.
• Launch of construction of three new EPR reactors and termination of offshore and onshore wind projects.
• Renationalization of motorways.
• Privatization of public broadcasting and abolition of the license fee.
• National priority for access to seasonal employment.
• Status quo on pensions. Progressive system of retirement: 60 years for French people who entered working life before the age of 20 and who have contributed 40 annuities.
• Construction of 100,000 social housing units per year and 100,000 student housing units over the five-year term.
• Minimum pension increased to 1,000 euros.
• Exemption from employers’ contributions for any salary increase of 10% (for salaries up to three times the minimum wage).
• Creation of a tax on financial wealth.
• Reduction of VAT on energy products from 20% to 5.5%.
• Full tax share from the second child.
• Exemption from inheritance tax on real estate up to 300,000 euros.
• Income tax exemption for those under 30 years old.
Emmanuel Macron heads right
• Energy independence: revival of nuclear energy with the construction of six EPR2 power plants and installation of 50 offshore wind farms by 2050.
• Investment of 30 billion euros in the sectors of the future: space mini-launchers, semiconductors, biomedicines, etc.
• Development of unicorns and companies in the field of cloud, quantum, artificial intelligence…
• Renovation of 700,000 housing units per year.
• Electric vehicles: implementation of a leasing plan to get out of the internal combustion engine.
• Retirement age raised to 65 with consideration of long careers.
• RSA conditional on a minimum of fifteen to twenty hours of activity per week.
• Reform of Pôle emploi, transformed into France travail, to return to full employment in 2027.
• Minimum pension of 1,100 euros per month.
• Abolition of the audiovisual license fee.
• Abolition of the CVAE (contribution on the added value of companies).
• Exemption from direct line inheritance tax at 150,000 euros, compared to 100,000 euros today.
• Implementation of a monetizable universal time savings account for the RTT.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to make the rich pay
• Blocking of the price of basic necessities to fight against inflation: gas, electricity, etc.
• Exit from nuclear power and planning for the transition to 100% renewable energies in 2050 with a 200 billion euro investment plan to phase out fossil fuels.
• Renationalisation of la Française des jeux, motorways and the SNCF, etc.;
• Establishment of the 800,000 contract workers in the public service.
• Transformation of French debt into perpetual debt by the European Central Bank.
• Requisition of all long-term empty housing units to put them back on the market.
• Abolition of the tax credit for competitiveness and employment (CICE) for companies: 20 billion euros per year to finance pensions.
• Recruitment of 160,000 teachers.
• Retirement at age 60 at the full rate with a contribution period of forty years.
• Introduction of a sixth week of paid vacation.
• Change to 32 hours for arduous and night jobs.
• Introduction of a “guarantee of autonomy” allowing everyone’s monthly income to reach the poverty line, ie 1,063 euros.
• Smic increased to 1,400 euros and pension guaranteed at the level of the minimum wage for any retiree with 40 annual payments.
• Implementation of 100% Secu with integration of mutuals into Social Security.
• Reinstatement of wealth tax.
• Inheritance capped at a maximum of 12 million euros and increase in inheritance tax.
• Creation of a monthly autonomy allowance of 1,063 euros for all young people detached from the parental tax household.
• Reform of income tax in 14 brackets, against 5 currently, with the upper bracket (+400,000 euros per year) being taxed at 90%.
Valérie Pécresse degreases the mammoth
• Elimination of 150,000 positions
civil servants and redeployment of 50,000 positions in health, safety
and righteousness.
• Sale of State minority holdings.
• Savings plan of 45 billion euros per year to reduce the debt to 100% of GDP in ten years: debureaucratization, fight against tax and social fraud, end of ineffective subsidies, etc.
• Relaunch of the nuclear sector with
the construction of six EPR reactors.
• Carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Retirement increased to 65 years.
• 10% salary increase over five years for all those who earn less than 2,800 euros per month.
• Birth bonus of 900 euros per year from the birth of the first child.
• Decreasing unemployment benefits from the sixth month.
• Conditioning of family allowances for foreigners to a period of five years of legal residence in France.
• Creation of a “young active income” of 670 euros per month for those under 25 who are training for a job under pressure.
• Tax exemption for overtime and gradual elimination of 35 hours.
• Abolition of inheritance tax for 95% of French people. Each child can inherit 200,000 euros tax-free.
• Abolition of the social solidarity contribution of companies (C3S), which finances old-age insurance.
Éric Zemmour plays Donald Trump
• Launch of a sovereign fund financed by the Livret A to invest in French companies.
• Energy: construction of 14 new nuclear reactors by 2050 and cancellation of all current and future wind farm projects.
• Implementation of a “homeland-score” on consumer products to indicate their French origin.
• Abolition of the license with points and return to 90 km/h on the roads and 50 km/h in the city.
• Abolition of non-contributory social benefits for non-EU foreigners.
• Fight against social fraud: systematic control of recipients, suspension of aid for five years to any repeat fraudster, etc.
• Retirement age raised to 64 by 2030.
• Abolition of the SRU law imposing on cities a minimum rate of 25% social housing.
• Reduction of the corporate tax rate to 15% for small businesses.
• Reduction of the CSG on wages below 2,000 euros net per month to revalue net remuneration.
• Tax exemption for overtime and zero charge bonus (up to three months of additional net salary with zero Urssaf and zero charge).
• Full tax exemption of the participation bonus.
• Reduction of inheritance tax up to 200,000 euros.
• Doubling of the family quotient.