The parties involved in the legislative blitz in France are trying on Thursday to convince worried bosses of a radical economic change of course following the elections, over which controversies around anti-Semitism continue to hover.
As the elections of June 30 and July 7 approach, the possible coming to power of the National Rally (RN, far right) or the left-wing coalition of the New Popular Front is causing business circles to fear a decline in the country, whose accounts public are already in the red.
The European Commission invited itself into the debate on Wednesday by opening the way to procedures for excessive public deficits against several Member States including France, which is among the worst performers in the Union and whose solvency rating has been lowered at the end of May by the S&P agency for the first time in eleven years.
Weakened by its debacle at the European elections on June 9, the presidential camp opened this grand economic oral by calling not to change the “pro-business” policy implemented since Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017, and to further curb public spending.
“We will not be able to be competitive with this level of debt and with this addiction to public spending,” declared Emmanuel Macron’s former prime minister, Édouard Philippe, in front of organizations of large and small businesses in Paris.
Bringing together social democrats, communists and the radical left, the New Popular Front defended a completely different approach, advocating an increase in the minimum wage and the reestablishment of a wealth tax removed by Emmanuel Macron at the start of his first term. .
“Budgetary unreason”
“You can raise your hands, billionaires, and I will apologize to you for the effort I am asking of you for solidarity and economic patriotism,” said the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud.
A big favorite in the legislative elections, the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, blamed the government’s “budgetary unreason” and the “risk of economic decline” in the event of the status quo following the elections. His party promises in particular to reduce France’s contribution to the European Union budget by two billion euros, its opponents believing that such a measure would ultimately lead to a “Frexit”.
On the eve of these hearings, the employers’ organization Medef, which represents large companies, had described the economic proposals of the RN and the left-wing coalition as “dangerous” for the French economy.
“If these programs materialize in 2024 or later”, they would cause “tax increases, […] the departure of foreign investors and massive business bankruptcies, therefore job destruction,” estimated the organization.
Since the shock dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron on the evening of June 9, electoral promises have multiplied, including within the presidential camp which announced new measures in favor of purchasing power, a central concern of voters in according to opinion polls.
“Dykes” against anti-Semitism
The shock wave caused by the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish teenager on Saturday in the suburbs near Paris also continues to fuel criticism against La France insoumise (LFI, radical left), the main force in the coalition. of the Popular Front.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is leading the presidential camp’s campaign, ordered political leaders on Thursday to “put up dikes” in the face of the rise in anti-Semitism and to “refuse to [le] trivialize”, targeting LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The latter had judged anti-Semitism in France to be “residual” while the figures show an outbreak of anti-Jewish acts since the deadly Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 and the start of the devastating war in Gaza.
France has both the largest Jewish community and one of the largest Muslim communities in Europe.
“When we say, as was the case for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, that anti-Semitism is, I quote, “residual” in our country while it […] exploded, […] Obviously we are allowing a speech, a hatred to become commonplace in public debate,” said the Prime Minister.
One of the media figures of the Popular Front, the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau, on Thursday rejected any “structural anti-Semitism” at LFI.