LAST UPDATE | 30 Jun
WITH VOTING UNDERWAY in the first of two rounds of parliamentary elections in France today, what have the top three most popular parties been saying to woo voters their way?
According to the latest opinion polling, the far-right National Rally is out in front on 35%, the New Popular front left alliance is in second place on 28% while Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble grouping is behind them both on 20%.
The National Rally (RN) are promising a far-reaching crackdown on immigration and the beefing up of policing powers.
Economically, the party’s leaders have cast themselves as defenders of the ordinary citizen, while also courting business interests.
The New Popular Front (NFP) is promising to increase taxes on the wealthy and introduce taxes on windfall profits for businesses, with the aim of reversing Macron’s increase to the retirement age and funding social services.
The centre-left influence can be seen in the area of foreign policy, where the group says it will maintain support for Ukraine.
Macron’s Ensemble Citoyens grouping represents a continuation of the unpopular status quo in economic terms – France’s national debt is high and so is the cost of living. His pension reform was an effort to bring down the country’s budget deficit but was opposed by roughly two thirds of the population.
Macron, a former investment banker, has promised tax cuts, as well as more nuclear energy plants.
He has also continued to tack right on social issues, vowing to protect French secularism, continue restrictions on immigration and come down harder on crime. Given the far-right’s growing popularity, this move has not had the desired effect.
More broadly, since announcing the elections to the shock of even his own supporters, Macron has urged voters to reject what he calls “the extremes” on the right and left. He recently said a victory for either would risk a “civil war”.
The President’s personal approval rating currently stands at 28% and during the campaign, posters for his party have not featured him prominently, instead forefronting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Here’s a closer look at what the two challenger parties have been saying in the hurried run-up to today’s first round vote.
Economics
The New Popular Front is a broad grouping that was hastily assembled following Macron’s announcement of snap parliamentary elections but they have produced a manifesto.
The NFP has said it wants a “total break” from Macron’s economic policies.
The alliance of parties on the left has pledged to raise €30 billion a year from taxing businesses and the rich, promising to use the money to reverse Macron’s deeply unpopular pension reform that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The group wants to increase benefits and civil service wages, impose price controls on some essential goods, lower the retirement age to 60 and index pensions to wages. They also want to increase the minimum wage by 15%.
The alliance aims to bring in the €30 billion from a wealth tax and a levy on windfall profits in order to pay for its reforms.
The policies have been derided by Macron and his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, while also being questioned by economists.
Prime Minister Attal has said the left’s plans were “a shredder for the middle class”.
The NFP says its plans will not affect those earning less than 4,000 euros per month.
France’s current debt is around 110% of GDP – over three trillion euros – coupled with an enduring government deficit that was rebuked by the European Commission prior to the announcement of the elections.
Macron has lashed out at the NFP, charging that “with the extreme left it’s four times worse” than the far right.
Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist of the IMF, wrote on X:
“There is a delicate balance between reducing inequality and maintaining strong economic growth.
“The NPF program simply ignores this balance, and can only… lead to an economic catastrophe.”
But he also dubbed the far-right National Rally’s economic plan a “Christmas tree without logic or coherence”.
Social issues
On immigration, the NFP has said it would restart search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean, repeal Macron’s stricter immigration laws, allow asylum seekers to work and create a “climate displaced” status for migrants.
More broadly they want to create legal and safe pathways for people to claim asylum.
Foreign Policy
Foreign affairs are what has traditionally split the left in France, but the NFP has sought to reassure voters by softening some positions and reversing course on others.
The dominant force in the NFP, Jean-Luc Mélonchon’s France Unbowed, along with the Communists, have drawn criticism for positions they have taken on the conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.
They have been rebuked by those closer to the French centre for some of their comments regarding support for Ukraine and attitudes towards NATO.
Mélenchon cast Russia as a “more reliable partner than the United States” in 2020, for example, but the NFP has now committed to “unfailingly defend the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people” and to provide Kiev with arms.
On Palestine, the NFP has called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages, while pointedly referring to Hamas as “terrorists” after Mélenchon previously declined to use that word to describe the group.
The party would also recognise the State of Palestine.
Economics
Jordan Bardella has tried to shore up his economic credibility by soft-pedalling costly promises including slashing VAT on energy and fuel.
Bardella has also softened the party’s stance on opposing Macron’s retirement age rise, saying it would not be an immediate priority.
“The RN and its allies offer things that may make people happy but in the end we are talking 100 billion (euros) a year” in unbudgeted costs, Macron has said.
Economists have also expressed concerns about the RN’s proposed financial policies, saying they are unworkable and could prompt a similar market reaction to the one that greeted former UK prime minister Liz Truss’s tax reforms, which saw her out of office after just 45 days.
Social issues
The RN has promised to drastically reduce immigration of all kinds and vowed to expel foreigners who commit crimes. The party campaigned during the 2022 presidential election on policies such as denying birthright citizenship and limiting migrants’ right to social services and housing.
They also want to privatise public TV and radio outlets.
The RN has not produced a manifesto ahead of today’s vote though so many questions remain about what they would do in power.
In a move seen as softening their anti-Islam image, the party has gone back on its plan to ban the wearing of the hijab in public, although Bardella has not ruled it out in the long run.
The RN has also pledged to give more cover to police officers accused of violent offences.
Foreign policy
“Who are they to explain what the constitution should say?” Macron asked recently.
The RN’s three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen – Bardella’s mentor – ratcheted up tensions ahead of today’s vote by saying that the president’s commander-in-chief title was purely “honorific”.
In the event of Macron having to share power with an RN-led government, “it’s the prime minister who holds the purse strings”, she said.
In a televised debate late this week, Attal said that Le Pen’s remarks sent a “very serious message for the security of France”.
Bardella has sought to reassure voters about the party’s foreign policy though, reversing course on withdrawing from NATO and scrapping a plan for an “alliance” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said in the most recent debate that the RN would “not let Russian imperialism absorb an allied state like Ukraine”.
He is opposed to sending longer range missiles to Ukraine that could hit Russian territory.
“My compass is the interest of France and the French,” said Bardella.
Bardella recently insisted he does “not plan to question the commitments France has made on the international stage” on defence if he takes power, a reference to NATO but also the European Union.
He added that France would keep up weapons deliveries to Ukraine under an RN government.
“Our credibility towards our European partners and NATO allies is at stake,” he said at an arms trade show, moderating the far right’s historic hostility to the US-led alliance.
Includes reporting from AFP
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