The French far-right financial party will limit aid to foreigners

Released in: 24/06/2024 – 16:40

3 minutes

“In three words: we are ready,” the 28-year-old chairman of the National Assembly (RN) said at a press conference, presenting his party’s program on Monday.

Bardella promised that if elected, he would increase France’s purchasing power, restore power to schools and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

He repeated plans to tighten borders and make it more difficult for foreigners born on French soil to obtain citizenship.

He also repeated statements made last week that as soon as he takes office he will submit a bill to reduce VAT on energy from 20 to 5.5 percent and will renegotiate energy costs in France with the European Union.

Recent polls suggest Bardella will win Sunday’s legislative elections and will likely become prime minister.

“National priority”

The party’s platform, published on its website on Monday, says employers will be able to raise salaries by 10 percent for five years without paying social security contributions.

Bardella said the program was “calculated and reasonable” but did not provide specific numbers, saying the PLN 12 billion budget deficit created by the VAT cut would be covered by closing tax loopholes and limiting social benefits for foreigners.

The cornerstone of the National Council’s policy is the idea of ​​”national priority” for social benefits, reserving them exclusively for the French.

“Reducing social spending by introducing a national priority” is one of the points of the party’s detailed program.

“It is not a redistribution from the richer to the poorer through tax increases or state policy in the economy,” explains Romeric Godin, economic reporter for the investigative portal Mediapart, referring to RN’s economic proposals, which are sometimes described as left-wing because they are redistributive in nature.

“They redistribute through ‘national preferences,’ which means redistributing along ethnic and national lines, which is a discriminatory policy.”

He believes the policy would likely not be sustainable under France’s current legal framework, but the SC says it will implement it “if necessary through a constitutional referendum.”

More from Romeric Godin and others envisioning a far-right government in France on the Spotlight on France podcast:

However, redistributing social contributions paid to foreigners will not cover the budget deficits facing France or create economic growth any more than current government policies, notes Godin.

He sees the RN-led economy as an austerity economy, similar to that imposed by the current government, with the difference that “austerity will be more difficult for foreigners, migrants, not for the French.”

“This type of ethnic and national redistribution is very attractive to some people who think it is the solution to their problem,” he says.

“And this is the great success of the National Rally – to convince people that actually making foreigners poorer will make them richer.”

Buying time with an audit

Many of the spending proposals presented by Bardella and the RN are based on an audit of the country’s finances scheduled for July, which would determine what can (and cannot) be done.

“It’s a traditional way of saying, ‘We can’t deliver on some of the promises we’ve made before because the public finances are not in order,’” says Godin, skeptical that the RN will be able to keep it.

The party, which focused more on social issues during former leader Marine Le Pen’s 2022 presidential campaign, is preparing to withdraw if necessary.

It has already done so with regard to pensions.

She promised to lower the retirement age to 60 before 2022, and while Bardella continues to promise to review Macron’s pension reform, he has lowered his ambitions.

Only those who started working at the age of 20 or less will be able to retire at the age of 60, while those who have contributed to the system for 40 years will be able to retire at the age of 62.

According to the party platform, this issue will be resolved this year.

For Godin, the economic audit is a way out: “They can say that if the French public finance report is very bad, they won’t do it in the fall or at all.”

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Imagining a far-right government in France, listen to episode 113 of the Spotlight on France podcast here.