Factbox-Macron wants the French to work longer, shake up welfare state

FILE PHOTO: French President Macron holds election rally, in Nanterre

By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who won a first mandate in 2017 on a promise to be neither of the left nor the right, is projected in voter surveys to win a second term in against a resurgent Marine Le Pen, but the margin is tight.

Here are his main policy proposals https://avecvous.fr/projet-presidentiel:

ECONOMY

* Raise the minimum pension age to 65 from 62 currently

* Require 15-20 hrs/week of training for welfare benefit recipients

* Cut taxes by 15 billion euros with half for households and the rest for businesses.

* Further loosen labour market rules and reform unemployment insurance to make payments vary according to the state of the economy

* Raise the threshold over which inheritance tax kicks in from 100,000 euros to 150,000 euros

EUROPE, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

* Make the European Union more self-sufficient in defence, agriculture, energy and strategic economic sectors

* Strengthen the capacities of national European armies, increase co-ordination between them and create a “common military doctrine”

* Create European industrial champions including a “European metaverse”

* Reform the European electricity market

IMMIGRATION & SECURITY

* Make long-term residence permits conditional on a French exam and employment

* Expel foreign trouble-makers

* Create a rapid-action force to restore order in troubled banlieues

* Broader scope for on-the-spot-fines for petty crime

ENERGY

* Build six new nuclear reactors and launch studies for another eight, increase solar energy capacity tenfold, build 50 wind farms at sea by mid-century

* Take control of certain energy companies, suggesting that the government would revive stalled plans to buy out minority shareholders in nuclear utility EDF

* Renovate 700,000 homes a year

* Leasing scheme to make electric vehicles more accessible

(Compiled by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough)

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