PARIS (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker elected in 2017 on a promise to be neither left nor right, is projected in the electoral polls to win a second term against a resurgent far right Marine Le Pen, although with a smaller margin of victory.
Here are his main policy proposals:
* Raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65 and increase the minimum monthly pension to 1,100 euros ($1,187).
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* Require 15-20 hours of training per week for welfare recipients
* Reduce taxes by 15 billion euros, half of which for households and the rest for businesses.
* Further relax labor market rules and reform unemployment insurance so that payments vary with the state of the economy
* Raise the threshold above which inheritance tax comes into play from 100,000 euros to 150,000 euros
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* Make the European Union more autonomous in defence, agriculture, energy and strategic economic sectors
* Strengthen the capabilities of European national armies, increase coordination between them and create a “common military doctrine”
* Create European industrial champions including a “European metaverse”
* Reforming the European electricity market
* Make long-term residence permits conditional on a French exam and a job
* Expel foreigners deemed troublemakers
* Create a rapid action force to restore order in troubled “suburbs”, economically disadvantaged suburbs.
* Wider scope of on-site fines for petty crime
* Build six new nuclear reactors and launch studies for eight others, increase solar energy capacity tenfold, build 50 offshore wind farms by mid-century
* Take control of some energy companies, suggesting the government would relaunch stalled plans to buy out EDF’s minority shareholders
* Renovate 700,000 houses per year
* Leasing program to make electric vehicles more accessible
* Put the next Prime Minister directly in charge of “green development” to make France the “first great nation”. Stop using oil, coal and gas
(Compiled by Michel Rose; edited by Richard Lough and Ros Russell)
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