France’s far-right National Rally party and its left-wing rival coalition, the New Popular Front, have both promised to save the country from financial collapse.
But France’s top government official on Thursday took a cold shoulder at the rival parties’ competing economic policies, warning that either could endanger the French economy and alienate France from the European Union.
With less than two weeks to go until crucial legislative elections, members of France’s leading employers’ association MEDEF are holding “auditions” to solicit candidates from the main parties vying to take power from President Emmanuel Macron, whose government has been severely weakened after a crushing defeat to the far-right in the European Parliament elections.
Macron expects voters to reject the extremists in favor of his centrist Renaissance party and has called for early parliamentary elections, with the first round scheduled for June 30 and the final round for July 7.
At a packed-out concert hall in Paris on Thursday, business leaders grilled National Rally candidate Jordan Bardella about how he would fund his law-and-order platform, booed far-left candidates when they called for a wealth tax on billionaires, and praised Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who effectively ran Macron’s campaign and whose pro-business policies are seen as helping spur economic growth.
MEDEF chairman Patrick Martin, who took to the stage alongside other business leaders at the start of the event, lightened the mood by criticising what he called unrealistic and wasteful populist promises.
When Bardella, the 28-year-old firebrand successor to National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and the new face of the burgeoning right, made his first public appearance alongside Eric Ciotti, the leader of France’s mainstream conservative party. Last week, Ciotti broke a political taboo by embracing an alliance with the nationalist right. The murmurs turned to a faint murmur as the pair made the case that France’s economy would be better off in power.
Senior members of the audience peppered Bardella with questions about his party’s positions on economic policy, immigration and international investment. Careful to present a polished image in a well-tailored suit and black tie, the young politician and magnetic speaker outlined his priorities if he were to take on the once-unthinkable role of French prime minister alongside Macron.
These include slashing energy, gas and electricity taxes for French households, cutting income taxes for citizens under 30 and encouraging companies to raise salaries by 10 percent. Immigrants who have a work permit and pay taxes can stay in France, but they must leave if they are unemployed for six months since their last job, he said. The National Coalition would also increase social security spending for French-born citizens by no longer allowing illegal immigrants to access the French health care system, he added.
“We understand that on an economic level we have to reassure the public,” Bardella told the crowd. “Our goal is to bring order back to the country, to the city and to France’s finances.”
That’s the opposition’s New Popular Front policy platform, which investors fear will ignore fiscal prudence with a coalition government that includes the Socialists, Greens and Communists, promising to raise the minimum wage, lower the retirement age to 60 and freeze prices of basic goods to help families hit by inflation.
Business leaders booed when Eric Coquerel, head of the left-wing party Indomitable France, pointed to some in the audience as he accused companies of putting profit margins above people. “We want billionaires to pay more tax,” he said.
The Paris think tank, the Institut Montaigne, said in a report on Thursday that each of the three main parties’ election platforms would cost more than 10 billion euros ($10.71 billion) a year. The New Popular Front coalition’s platform would cost nearly 30 billion euros, making it more expensive than any other party.
But France’s business community doesn’t necessarily sway opinion on the streets. According to the latest political poll published Thursday by pollster IFOP, the Rally National is expected to win 34% of the parliamentary vote, while the Popular Front will get 29%. Macron’s Together coalition will get 22% of the vote, not enough to prevent an upset.
The crowd was friendly to Mr Le Maire, some of whom he spoke affably to, as he reiterated his warning that France would fall into chaos if either the far right or the far left were to lead the country.
The European Union sanctioned France on Wednesday for violating rules requiring countries to maintain strict fiscal discipline, but business leaders have not forgotten that Le Maire oversaw a 300 billion euro program to support employers and employees during the pandemic that is one of the main causes of France’s huge deficit and debt today.
“Without that program, many businesses would go bankrupt and workers would be in dire straits,” said Katie Gendidier, who runs Vivre Adom, a small business that provides in-home care services to seniors. “It protected us. We want stability in this election.”
But Michel Picon, president of France’s regional business association U2P, acknowledged the rally had achieved a major milestone at a time of growing anxiety in towns and villages across the country.
He said small business owners in those areas feel increasingly threatened by a surge in petty crime, which voters seem to associate with illegal immigration, which Picon said is fueling backlash against legal immigrants working in France and on whom many businesses rely for labor.
“We need more order in this country,” he said, “but we also need to protect working immigrants who have nothing to do with these actions.”
