Explainer-Macron or Le Pen: why it matters for France, the EU and the
West
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[April 23, 2022]
By Michel Rose
PARIS (Reuters) - The French will decide on
Sunday whether to re-elect pro-business centrist President Emmanuel
Macron or blow up decades of mainstream consensus in favour of far-right
Marine Le Pen.
Here's what to expect from them on major issues:
- THE ECONOMY:
LE PEN: The far-right heiress has transformed the former National Front,
turning her father's free-market, small-government party into a
big-spending, protectionist one.
She wants to implement a "Buy French" policy for public tenders, cut the
minimum retirement age to 60 for those who started work before 20, scrap
income tax for those aged under 30, and cut VAT on energy to 5.5% from
20%.
She would also spend 2 billion euros ($2.18 billion) over 5 years
raising hospital workers' salaries and recruiting an extra 10,000 of
them. Teachers' salaries would rise 15% over 5 years.
Gilles Ivaldi, political scientist at Sciences-Po, says her party's
economic programme is further to the left than it has been for decades.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Apr/23/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
"Free trade kills the planet," she said during a TV debate with Macron.
MACRON : The French leader plans to double down on supply-side reforms
he has implemented during his first mandate, with the main plank of his
manifesto being an increase in the minimum pension age to 65 from 62.
"I don't want to increase our taxes, I don't want to increase our debt,
I even want to start paying it off over the next five years," Macron
said during the debate. "So I want us to work more."
Macron is also promising to make some welfare benefits conditional on
15-20 hours of training, similar to policies in countries such as the
United States or Britain. Unemployment benefits would be linked to the
strength of the economy.
In his attempt to stay true to his "neither left nor right" motto, he
has also promised to make benefits automatic for those who qualify
instead of requiring would-be recipients to apply.
- EUROPE :
LE PEN : She insists she has no "secret agenda" for France - a founding
member of the EU - to leave the 27-nation bloc, its single currency or
its passport-free Schengen zone.
Opponents believe her policies would at best create new tensions within
the bloc - whose unity has been tested in recent years by a migration
crisis, Britain's departure and the COVID-19 pandemic - and at worst
lead to a "Frexit".
Le Pen has said she would cut French contributions to the EU budget,
renegotiate the Schengen agreement and re-introduce checks on goods
entering the country from other EU states.
She would seek to re-establish the primacy of French law over EU law -
the foundational basis of European integration - and wants the bloc to
become a loose association of cooperating sovereign countries.
"It amounts to a complete hollowing-out of what the EU has been trying
to achieve all these years," said one senior diplomat. "But it's not
presented that way."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Apr/23/images/ads/current/goodman_sda_SFARM_2022.png)
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![](../images/042322pics/news_t45.jpg)
Official campaign posters of 2022 French presidential election
candidates French President Emmanuel Macron, candidate for his
re-election, and Marine le Pen, French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement
National) party candidate, are displayed on an official billboard in
Dammartin-en-Serve, France, April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Apr/23/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png) MACRON : The ardent Europhile would
continue his push to develop what he calls Europe's "strategic
autonomy" in defence, technology, agriculture and energy and reduce
the bloc's dependence on other powers.
Macron has sought to re-orient the EU towards a more protectionist
stance, blocking some free-trade deals with other blocs such as
South America's Mercosur and creating a mechanism that increases
scrutiny of outside takeovers of strategic EU companies.
Macron is also likely to push for more regulation of U.S. tech
giants and has said he wanted to create a "European metaverse" to
compete with Facebook's.
The relationship between Paris and Berlin will remain key to shaping
Europe's future.
"I believe in the Franco-German couple," he said.
- THE WESTERN ALLIANCE:
LE PEN : Le Pen wants to pull France out of transatlantic military
alliance NATO's integrated command, in a challenge to the West's
post-Cold War security architecture.
Opponents accuse her of being too close to Moscow. Her party
received a bank loan from a Russian bank in 2014 and she was hosted
by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin shortly before
the 2017 presidential election.
Macron accused Le Pen of being on Putin's payroll, telling her: "You
talk about your banker when you talk about Russia."
She has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but says Moscow
could be an ally again post-war. She said she would pursue a foreign
policy at equal distance from Washington and Moscow.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Apr/23/images/ads/current/atlantabank_lda_SFARM_2022.png)
MACRON : Although Macron ruffled feathers across the trans-Atlantic
alliance, notably in eastern Europe and Germany, when he called NATO
"brain-dead" in 2019, he has since said the Russian invasion of
Ukraine had "jolted it back to life".
He would nonetheless seek to make Europeans less dependent on the
U.S. military for security.
Macron has pushed the EU to focus more on the Indo-Pacific and
China's rising influence in the region. However, he clashed with
Washington, London and Canberra after Australia ditched a massive
submarine deal with France.
He has been guarded over whether he would seek to cooperate with the
new U.S.-UK-Australia security alliance - dubbed AUKUS - against
China or try and persuade the EU to pursue its own independent
policy towards Beijing.
($1 = 0.9195 euros)
(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Richard Lough and Ros Russell)
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