Macron promises tax cuts, welfare reform in election manifesto
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged further tax cuts, reforms to the welfare system and major public investments on Thursday as he unveiled his manifesto less than a month away from elections.
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Speaking at his first major campaign event on Thursday, 44-year old Emmanuel Macron announced a programme aimed deepening pro-business reforms he began in 2017 aimed at reducing high unemployment.
"It's quite normal, especially when you consider the state of public coffers, that we work more," Macron told some 300 journalists gathered at a venue in a northern Paris suburb, in front of giant screens showing his slogan "With You".
"We have two levers: full employment and reforming the pension system," he said.
Macron acknowledged that he had been unable to push through the pension overhaul as promised in 2017, but promised to tackle it again and push back the retirement age to 65 from 62.
He also proposed reforms to the benefits system that would require the unemployed to undertake 15 to 20 hours of work or training per week.
Not without risks
Another politically risky change would see all social benefits – for unemployment, housing, or childcare -–centralised in a single system, affecting up to 20 million French people.
Major new public investments in the military, the energy sector and new technologies were also required, he said, in order to create "an independent France in a strong Europe".
The programme "has been informed by the crises we've experienced in the last five years which we weren't expecting," he said, referring to so-called "Yellow Vest" anti-government protests from 2018, the Covid-19 crisis, and the war in Ukraine.
Many of his proposed reforms will be subject to debate with stakeholders, he said, such as changes that would introduce more autonomy for schools and wage differences between teachers.
"'With you' is not just a slogan, it will be for me a new democratic way of working," he insisted.
Questions about legitimacy
Rivals across the political spectrum, who have struggled to make an impact as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines, have accused Macron of neglecting the election campaign until now.
He has taken a leading role in Western diplomatic efforts to stop the war in Ukraine, holding 20 hours of talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the last five weeks.
"The president wants to be re-elected without ever really having been a candidate, without a campaign, without a debate, without a competition of ideas," the head of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, said on Tuesday.
"If there isn't a campaign, then there will be questions about the legitimacy of the winner," Larcher, from the opposition Republicans party, told Le Figaro newspaper.
Ahead in the polls
His diplomatic efforts over the Ukraine war appear to have boosted his lead in the polls.
The most recent voter surveys show Macron has gained five to six points over the last month and is likely to win the first round of the election on 10 April and beat any opponent in the April 24 run-off.
He is currently polling at around 30 percent, with veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen in second place on around 18 percent, a poll of polls by the Politico website suggests.
Le Pen is trailed by three candidates at around 11-12 percent – right-wing challenger Valerie Pecresse, far-right former TV pundit Eric Zemmour and hard-left campaigner Jean-Luc Melenchon, who appears to be gaining momentum.
(with newswires)
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