Two candidates for two social projects. As in 2017, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will face each other on Sunday April 24 in the second round of the presidential election. In the meantime, the candidate of the National Rally and the outgoing president LREM will work to convince the French to trust them for the next five years.
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For the contenders for the Elysée, the priorities of the voters have the merit of being clear. According to a study carried out from April 6 to 9 by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for France Télévisions, purchasing power, immigration, the health system, the environment and pensions topped the concerns of respondents. To help you see more clearly, franceinfo returns to the proposals of the two finalists of the ballot on eight issues among the most cited when explaining the motivations for its vote.
1On purchasing power
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. Gathered in a chapter of the program called “Achieving full employment and making a better living from your work”, the measures of the candidate LREM in favor of purchasing power target both individuals and companies. To the former, the outgoing president proposes tripling the “exceptional purchasing power bonus”, currently capped at 2,000 euros, which employers can pay to their employees without taxes or contributions. A profit-sharing scheme would also be put in place for companies that pay dividends, in order to oblige them to pay this bonus or to set up employee participation or profit-sharing measures.
Emmanuel Macron also intends to abolish the audiovisual license fee, bring the reduction on inheritance rights from 100,000 to 150,000 euros in direct filiation or even lower contributions for the self-employed up to 550 euros per year. He also wants to open the common declaration of income to cohabitants, hitherto reserved for married couples and PACS.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. The main measures of the RN candidate concern the reduction of VAT from 20% to 5% on energy prices (which would cost around 10 billion euros, according to a study by the Institut Montaigne), the reduction 15% of the price of road tolls via the renationalisation of motorways, as well as the incentive for companies to increase salaries by 10% via an exemption from employers’ contributions.
Marine Le Pen also wants to abolish income tax for young people under 30, and shorten from 15 to 10 years the period between two tax-free donations of up to 100,000 euros between parents and children. Like Emmanuel Macron, the far-right candidate proposes the abolition of the fee, but this time by completely privatizing public broadcasting.
2On immigration
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. At the European level, the outgoing president proposes to continue to massively support the Frontex agency, responsible for the external borders of the European Union. At the national level, he intends to demonstrate more “firmness” towards foreigners “who pose a threat to public order”expelling them “rapidly” to their country of origin – even if they have a residence permit.
Emmanuel Macron also promises to toughen the conditions of access to these residence permits. Qualifications of four years or more will in fact be subject to the validation of a French examination and the validation of a “real approach to professional integration”.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. In the 46-page booklet she devotes to “immigration control”Marine Le Pen proposes to vote by referendum on the hardening (or even the prohibition) of family reunification, the abolition of jus soli or even the creation of an offense of illegal residence on French territory.
The RN candidate also wants to give priority to French citizens in certain areas, such as access to social housing or employment, and condition family allowances on a minimum of five years of work in France. It also plans to outsource asylum applications to French embassies and consulates, while “renegotiating” the free movement agreement in the Schengen area.
3On the health system
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. In his program, the outgoing president emphasizes three objectives: the decline of medical deserts, the “rescue pursuit” hospital and prevention. For the first point, he pleads for the establishment of a fourth year of internship for general practitioners in under-resourced areas, or the appointment of a pharmacist or a referent nurse in less dense territories. .
For the hospital, he mainly wants to launch a recruitment plan for nurses and nursing assistants. It also intends to launch a convention bringing together experts and citizens around the issue of euthanasia. Its recommendations would then be submitted to Parliament or to voters through a referendum.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. In its program, Marine Le Pen intends to devote 2 billion euros over five years to the revaluation of the salaries of caregivers who work in the hospital. To fight against medical deserts, she wants to increase the number of places in medical schools and nursing training institutes, and set up payment for consultations modulated according to the place of installation.
The candidate also pleads for a “moratorium on the abolition of beds in the public hospital”, as well as for the abolition of the Regional Health Agencies. She also wants to reserve state medical aid (AME), which allows foreigners in an irregular situation to benefit from access to care, only emergency care and minors. In 2020, the AME accounted for 0.4% of France’s health expenditure, according to the National Federation of French Mutuals.
4On the environment
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. For energy production, the candidate is betting on nuclear power, with the construction (already planned) of six EPR reactors by 2050. But he also defends wind power, promising the installation of 50 offshore wind farms in the same deadline. It also undertakes that any construction or renovation of a building (excluding housing) of more than 500 m2 includes the installation of solar panels or a green roof.
In his program, Emmanuel Macron insists on the need to improve the insulation of housing, and wants to gradually prohibit owners from renting “thermal strainers”. He also promises to increase the ecological penalty for the most polluting vehicles and to offer zero-rate loans. “from 2023” so that the most modest households can buy an electric car.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. The candidate intends to stop subsidizing and dismantle all wind or solar installations in the country, to focus on hydroelectricity, geothermal energy and hydrogen. Without forgetting nuclear power, which it wishes to relaunch by building “six (reactors) EPR”while preventing the closure of the Fessenheim plant, in the Haut-Rhin, scheduled for 2025.
Marine Le Pen also promises stricter supervision of factory farms, as well as a system of ecological bonuses for farmers who meet certain criteria. Regarding travel, the RN candidate intends to give motorists a boost by dividing the VAT on fuel by four.
5On pensions
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. On the question of pensions, the outgoing president plays the “at the same time” card. On the one hand, he wants to gradually raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 65, and the establishment of a general scheme, which would still take into account long and difficult careers. On the other hand, he wants to increase the minimum pension at the full rate to 1,100 euros per month. During his trip to the Pas-de-Calais and the North, Monday, April 11, the candidate for his re-election was however ready to “to open the door” a postponement of the retirement age to 64, rather than 65, “if there is too much tension” and “it can build consensus”.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. The candidate pleads for maintaining the retirement age at 62 and for the possibility of stopping work at 60 for those who would have started their career before the age of 20 and would have contributed for 40 annuities. It also intends to set the minimum amount of pensions at 1,000 euros and index them to the level of inflation.
6On crime
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. In the “security” chapter of his program, the candidate president promises a doubling of the police presence on the public highway “by 2030”. A measure which will be put in place thanks to the mobilization of around 3,000 agents (police and gendarmes), hitherto assigned to the guard of public buildings or hospitalized prisoners, in particular. As for rural areas, the LREM candidate wants to create 200 gendarmerie brigades.
Emmanuel Macron also wants to generalize the wearing of body cameras by the police and intends to create a “specific offense of willful violence” committed against “of any official depositary of public authority”. It further promises disenfranchisement for anyone found guilty of such acts.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. For the far-right candidate, security is one of the “priorities” of the quinquennium. Thus, it intends to create 7,000 police and gendarme posts, 3,000 administrative staff posts, as well as 85,000 additional prison places. To finance these measures, Marine Le Pen promises to increase the budget allocated to security and justice by 1.5 billion euros, each year for five years.
On the legal level, she also wishes to restore minimum sentences, prohibit reductions and adjustments to sentences, and campaigns for a life sentence. “real”. In her programme, Marine Le Pen also proposes setting up a “presumption of self-defence” for the police, in the event of the use of force or a weapon, even lethal.
7On social inequalities
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. The outgoing president pleads for a “solidarity at the source” on the model of income tax deduction at source. Understand: the automatic payment of social assistance (activity bonus, family allowances, APL, RSA) to people who can claim it, in order to “to avoid non-recourse and fraud”.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. The RN candidate hears “reserve social assistance” only to the French. It also pleads for the creation of a ministry for the fight against fraud, which would notably target people unduly touching “social contributions and benefits”.
8On the war in Ukraine
• What Emmanuel Macron proposes. The candidate president sticks to his initial position: “increase penalties [contre la Russie] whenever necessary, as he still assured on March 24. While campaigning for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict, Emmanuel Macron does not rule out going further in retaliatory measures if the war in Ukraine were to reach new levels. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to “get out of dependence on Russian gas and oil”, thanks in particular to the help of the G7 partners, the United States and Canada in the lead.
• What Marine Le Pen offers. The position of the candidate is nuanced. If it validates the principle of economic sanctions, it remains firmly opposed to the embargo on Russian imports. Marine Le Pen fears in particular that European sanctions will push Russia towards China, an economic rival, and campaigns for the maintenance of a “chat channel” with Vladimir Putin. She also called for caution regarding suspicions of war crimes in Ukraine, and does not wish to accuse Russia before the UN has been able to conduct an investigation on the spot.