why employers criticize the economic programs of the New Popular Front and the National Rally

Medef publicly denounced the measures proposed by the NFP and the RN, judging them “to go against the grain of all economic rationality.”

Representatives of parties and coalitions competing in the legislative elections are heard on Thursday June 12 at the Salle Gaveau in Paris by the main employers’ organizations, at the invitation of Medef. Édouard Philippe, Eric Coquerel, Boris Vallaud, Jordan Bardella, Bruno Le Maire and Bruno Retailleau are heard by the first French employers’ organization, in view of the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.

But before this grand oral, Medef publicly denounced the programs of the New Popular Front and the National Rally, deemed dangerous for the French economy.

This warning from the employers’ organization, which has 200,000 member companies employing 10 million people, is included in a document detailing its “ten conditions for France’s economic success”.

Medef considers that the RN and NFP programs are synonymous with additional expenditure, estimated between 100 and 200 billion euros and an approach, according to it, “against all economic rationality”. The employers’ organization is particularly targeting a return to retirement at 62 or even 60, an increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros net, the nationalization of motorways and even a reduction in VAT on energy products, the consequences of which would be, according to her, disastrous.

Medef points to a risk of returning to mass unemployment in the case of the minimum wage, of widening the deficit and the debt in that of motorways or VAT. She therefore implicitly accuses the leaders of the National Rally and the New Popular Front of lacking transparency in this campaign. In an interview given Wednesday June 19 at Figarothe president of Medef Patrick Martin estimated that the RN program “would cut us off from the European Union”. As for that of the New Popular Front, he judges that it “contains absolute red rags for business leaders”.

Medef also insists on the international consequences. “None of our European partners would follow France in this isolated approach”, warns the employers’ organization. Medef recalls the precedent of Liz Truss in 2022 in Great Britain, when the economic reforms of the short-lived Prime Minister caused a financial panic and forced her to resign after 49 days.

Ludovic Subran, chief economist of the Allianz group, took other examples on franceinfo on Wednesday. “We saw what happened with Brexit and in Italy with the technocratic government from 2012 to 2014. We have the impression that this election is important because on one side there is a program which is not financed, with a risk of debt crisis And on the other hand we have a program financed by very strong tax increases, and therefore a risk of capital flight.he analyzes, with reference to the economic programs of the RN and the NFP.

The chief economist of the Allianz group adds that employers’ organizations want “just recall the fundamentals of what economic and social consequences this can have on the French social model.” “The cost of debt would not be the same if we had completely unfair public policies, this would make the debt a major item in our public spending. This would force very strong trade-offs and a course of austerity, things experienced in Europe around ten years ago and which are not very pleasant for the population”he warns.