Left-wing parties in France pledged Friday to raise 30 billion euros a year from taxing companies and the wealthy if they win a majority in snap parliamentary elections, drawing the ire of centrists and business leaders.
The promises to fund new benefits come as the left tries to overtake the far-right National Rally’s (RN) lead in the polls – both well ahead of the president. Emmanuel Macron‘s camp.
Socialists, Greens, Communists and the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) would “immediately reintroduce a wealth tax with a climate component” to raise “15 billion euros” ($16 billion) if they entered government, Socialist Senator Alexandre said Ouizille to journalists in Paris.
A tax on corporate windfalls would raise another 15 billion euros, predicts the Nieuw Volksfront (NPF) alliance.
They plan to spend the money on reversing Macron’s hugely unpopular increase to the official retirement age, as well as increasing housing and unemployment benefits and public sector salaries.
Olivier Blanchard, a former chief economist at the IMF, called the NPF’s plans “essentially confiscatory in nature” in a post on Twitter.
“It is difficult to see how this will not lead to entrepreneurs moving their operations elsewhere en masse,” he added.
In a sign of weakening confidence, French government bond yields have soared since the president called snap elections following a defeat in European polls, as investors react to lavish spending plans from both the left and the RN.
France’s public finances are already under pressure, with an outstanding debt mountain of around 110 percent of GDP – more than three trillion euros – and a persistent government deficit that earned the country a reprimand from the European Commission on Wednesday.
Bond markets are showing “the direct consequences of totally pointless and irresponsible economic and financial plans” from both the left and the far right, Macron’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday.
He promised to reduce the French budget deficit to the EU’s imaginary limit of three percent by 2027, compared to more than five percent this year.
The RN, for its part, has vowed to face Brussels over the party’s plans to cut VAT on fuel – banned under EU rules aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
– ‘Election anti-Semitism’ –
Ministers led by the Prime Minister Gabriel Attal have proclaimed their message that they are the only bulwark against two “extremes” on the left and right.
“Today there are three blocs, two of which are extremes that feed each other, because they are fueled by divisions between the French, by the stigmatization of some French people,” Attal said in Marseille on Friday.
The RN’s core messages revolve around opposition to Islam and immigration, with the manifesto promising to “stop the flow of migrants”.
But accusations of anti-Semitism resounded loudest this week, amplified after the rape of a 12-year-old girl by two teenagers allegedly motivated by hatred of Jews.
Some figures from LFI, the largest party in the left-wing alliance, have been accused of anti-Semitism over their responses to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
“There is no equivalence between the contextual, populist and electoral anti-Semitism used by some members of LFI and the historical and essential anti-Semitism of the RN,” which was co-founded by a former Waffen-SS member and lawyer. Arie Alimi and historian Vincent Lemire wrote in an opinion piece for the daily newspaper Le Monde.
While “it cannot be disputed that there is a resurgence of anti-Semitism from the left,” they emphasized that “the NPF is the only electorally credible alternative to prevent an openly xenophobic party from taking control of our institutions.”
The left-wing election manifesto includes a condemnation of Hamas’ attack on Israel and a plan to tackle racism and anti-Semitism.
– Rush for proxy voting –
As voters rush to prepare for the June 30 and July 7 elections, more than a million people have already registered to vote by proxy in the elections that fall at the start of the summer holidays.
As of June 20, the number stood at more than 1,055,000, the Interior Ministry said, already exceeding the number observed in the June 2022 parliamentary elections, when people were more aware and at home more often.
Some eyes have also been focused on the Olympic Games in Paris that start at the end of July, and Macron has not shied away from calling on voters to choose stability.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday that he would not continue in his role overseeing security during the Games if Macron’s camp loses the election, “even for a few additional weeks”.
Nevertheless, “the Olympic Games are well prepared, everyone knows and appreciates that,” he added.
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