By Layli Foroudi
PARIS (Reuters) – Opinion polls point to the far-right’s Marine Le Pen as the main challenger to President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election, in a repeat of the 2017 match.
Le Pen has shifted her campaign focus to purchasing power, the number one priority for French voters, without shedding far-right policies from her election programme.
Here are her main policy proposals https://mlafrance.fr/programme:
ECONOMY
* No income tax for those aged under 30
* VAT on energy at 5.5% from current 20%. VAT at 0% for essential products such as pasta and diapers as long as inflation is one point higher than growth.
* No employer contributions on pay rises of up to 10%
* Early retirement at 60 for those who have worked 40 years. Increase low pensions
* Scrap inheritance tax for middle and low income families. No tax on donations of up to 100,000 euros per child or grandchild every ten years
IMMIGRATION
* Only French citizens will have access to welfare benefits
* French nationals will be given preference in access to social housing and to jobs
* Stop family reunification
* Systematically deport undocumented migrants, foreigners convicted of crimes
* Withdraw residency for migrants that are out of work for more than a year
* Remove birthright citizenship
* Asylum requests to be processed outside of France
SECURITY
* Re-establish mandatory sentencing and remove the possibility of reduced sentences
* Establish presumption of legitimate defense for security forces
ISLAM
* Strip French citizenship for people with extreme Islamist views
* Close mosques and Islamic associations that contradict French constitutional values
* Ban the hijab and religious symbols in all public spaces and for parents on school trips
EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL
* Withdraw France from NATO’s military command structures
* For the French constitution to prevail over international law
* Create a “European Alliance of Nations” intended to progressively replace the European Union
* End Franco-German cooperation agreements established since 2017
ENERGY
* Stop wind turbine projects and dismantle existing ones
* Leave the European electricity market
* Invest in nuclear energy
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi; Editing by Ingrid Melander)
