2024-06-25 13:29:32
Outlining the proposals of the New Popular Front, the Presidential Coalition and the National Rally on the economy, taxation, reindustrialization and pensions, the last reform of 2023 brought millions of French people to the streets.
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9 mins
Will the economy play a major role in these early legislative elections (June 30 and July 7), when purchasing power seems to be the main concern of the French? In any case, the left-wing coalition of the New Popular Front (NFP) is counting on tax reform by hitting the assets of the richest to convince voters of the feasibility of its plans, while the National Rally (RN) advocates the implementation of a fertility policy supported by taxes. Finally, as for the presidential coalition led by Gabriel Attal, it seems difficult to renew itself at a time when the Prime Minister makes his general policy speech on January 30 and Emmanuel Macron has been in power for seven years.
France 24 details the measures proposed by the three political families.
“Abolish billionaire privilege”
The Left Alliance intends to tackle the tax issue within its first 100 days in office, with a vote on August 4 on a revised finance bill – relating to the abolition of privileges and feudal rights voted on the night of August 4, 1789 – that seeks to increase the progressivity of the income tax from 5 to 14 levels, make the CSG progressive, re-establish the Wealth Solidarity Tax (ISF) which includes a climate component, abolish the “flat tax” (a single flat tax rate applied to capital income) and re-establish the “exit tax” (a tax on transfers of tax domicile outside France), eliminate “ineffective”, unfair and polluting tax loopholes, reform the inheritance tax and make it more progressive by targeting the highest assets and establishing the largest inheritance rights, introduce a kilometre tax on imports and tax the excess profits of agro-industrialists and large-scale distributions.
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According to the New Popular Front, these new revenues will make it possible to repeal the decree implementing the 2023 pension reform (which raises the statutory retirement age to 64), as well as the reform of unemployment insurance. The NFP aims to eventually restore retirement at 60, but proposes to organize a major meeting with the social partners to study how this can be achieved. Before that, he promised to restore the heavy work factor eliminated by Emmanuel Macron, take into account the RSA to verify the contribution quarter and link the pension amount to wages. On the revenue side, the NFP wants to include dividends, participation, employee savings, stock buybacks and overtime in the contribution scope, increase the old-age contribution by 0.25 percentage points per year for 5 years, adjust the social contribution of employers and create additional contributions for high salaries. .
As far as the economic life of France is concerned, the French Socialists, Ecologists and Communists want to “divide the economy and reindustrialize France”. The left-wing parties propose to launch “an industrial reconstruction plan to end French and European dependence in strategic sectors (semiconductors, medicine, advanced technologies, electric vehicles, solar panels, etc.), to carry out a preliminary diagnosis of natural resources before the establishment of industries, to monitor subcontracting, to guarantee the principal’s responsibility and to set quotas for subcontractors from SMEs and local processes. They also want to make aid to companies conditional on compliance with environmental and social standards and once morest discrimination within companies, by reserving at least one-third of the seats on the board of directors for employees, and to “make employees real actors in economic life” by expanding their right to intervene in companies.
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The left also wants to regulate banking and finance “to avoid new crises and provide financing for the real economy” and to create a public banking center based on deposit and consignment funds and a public investment bank, “which will have the special task of allocating collected regulated savings that meet social and ecological needs.”
The New Popular Front finally promises to defend workers’ rights. It will organize a national conference on work and hardship, aiming to restore the effective working week to 35 hours and hard work or night work to 32 hours, and to extend this measure to other professions through collective bargaining. At the same time, it will adopt a “zero death in the workplace” action plan, re-establish the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee (CHSCT), allow the employment of labor inspectors and occupational doctors, and update the list of occupational diseases, especially to include burnout.
“Together for work and merit!”
The president’s coalition promises the opposite of the New Popular Front in terms of taxation: “the golden rule once morest tax increases”. It also promises no tax on inheritances and donations up to €150,000 per child (including mixed families) and no tax on inheritances and donations up to €100,000 passed to grandchildren. On the other hand, she announced a new law this summer to continue the “relentless fight once morest all social and tax fraud”.
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For other aspects, Ensemble also pins its hopes on reindustrialization, confirming that the French government will maintain France’s position as “the most attractive for investment in Europe”, thus creating 200,000 industrial jobs and 400 additional factories. The project, led by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, also ensures that he wants to invest “massively” in research and technology, especially in the health sector, thanks to France 2030.
The presidential coalition finally promised to “further” simplify the administration of VSEs and SMEs “in order to always encourage initiative and job creation”. It also intends to allow “those who have difficulty repaying state-guaranteed loans to restructure their debts”.
“Realigning economic interests and national ambitions”
The project of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen also provides for a tax reform, but aimed at promoting fertility policies and facilitating inheritance. It would introduce a full tax share for the second child and transform zero-interest public loans into subsidies for couples with a third child. The RN also intends to restore the half tax share for widows and widowers, abolish direct inheritance tax for low-income families and the middle class and exempt donations from parents and grandparents to their children and grandchildren until “100,000 euros per year per descendant” for 10 years. Finally, there is the question of replacing the real estate wealth tax (IFI) with a financial wealth tax (IFF) and abolishing income tax for young people under 30 “to encourage their permanent settlement in France, professionals and families”.
The National Rally also intends to make finance and taxation work for business. He therefore wants to create a French sovereign fund to increase returns on national savings and direct them to strategic sectors, industry and innovation. He wants to abolish taxes on VSE/SME/ETI transfers in exchange for heirs promising to remain owners for at least 10 years, exempt companies created by young people under 30 from corporate tax for 5 years and continue to reduce production taxes (CVAE) “to stimulate French industrial facilities”.
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Jordan Bardella ultimately intends to simplify the regulatory environment “in line with a general simplification statement to be launched in the summer of 2024” and negotiate a reform of the ECB’s mandate, shifting it towards long-term employment, productivity and financing of long-term strategic projects.
In terms of pensions, the RN intends to repeal the 2023 pension reform and establish a progressive pension system “that encourages young people to enter the labor market as early as possible and takes into account the real difficulty of low-skilled jobs”. A social meeting to discuss working conditions must also be organized in July 2024.
By choosing to dissolve the National Assembly on the evening of the European elections, Emmanuel Macron forces the political parties to engage in a three-week blitzkrieg before the first round of early legislative elections on Sunday, June 30. The limited time forces France 24 to focus on the important issues, especially the three political families that can win at the end of the second round on Sunday, July 7. This is why our series of articles on the proposals will only feature the proposals of the New Popular Front, the Presidential Coalition and the National Rally – only these three coalitions can come to power.
Read: Proposals on purchasing power
READ: Political parties’ proposals on immigration and secularism
Read: The parties’ proposals for the EU and foreign policy
Read: Proposals for the economy from all sides
Read: Environmental proposals from all parties
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