Right-wing Les Républicains candidate Valérie Pécresse and her supporters have criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for plagiarising the right’s programme ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. EURACTIV France reports.
Macron, who tops the polls ahead of the vote scheduled for 10 and 24 April, has mixed measures that are hallmarks of both the left and the right – similar to what he did in the run-up to the previous elections in 2017.
This did not go down well with Pécresse who called his programme a “project of denial and counterfeiting, at a rally on 17 March.
But this seems unlikely to bother Macron, who once said he “royally” does not care how his opponents and commentators classify him on the political spectrum.
To the right on economic matters
Meritocracy, a long-standing characteristic of the French liberal right, has been placed at the heart of Macron’s new five-year programme.
Macron’s proposal to make basic income, known as RSA, conditional on the hours worked mirrors what Pécresse had previously proposed and is causing the most uproar.
However, while Pécresse is calling for RSA beneficiaries to contribute “15 hours of activity to society”, Macron has gone a step further, proposing “15 to 20 hours per week for an activity that would lead to professional integration”.
On retirement, the outgoing president has also taken up a proposal advocated by the right and even hardened his stance compared to 2017. While he did not support postponing the legal retirement age at the time, today, he proposes a gradual increase “up to the age of 65”. Pécresse intends to pursue the same objective.
Such a strategy is in line with the need to “work more”, Macron stressed at a press conference on 17 March – echoing the “work more to earn more” motto famously coined by former right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Regarding inheritance tax which all candidates want to lower, Macron and Pécresse have similar proposals. They both wish to exempt inheritance from taxation up to €150,000 and €200,000, respectively. Both are considering the creation of a new specific allowance for indirect heirs, which includes, for example, nephews and nieces.
Macron and all right-wing candidates – including those on the far-right – agree that taxation should be a lever to improve purchasing power and have promised to abolish the audiovisual licence fee, which currently stands at €138 per year per household.
However, while Macron and Pécresse believe it necessary to finance the public audiovisual service, far-right candidates have vowed to abolish it.
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The right’s response?
Macron has thus not only appropriated many right-wing talking points, but many influential personalities from that camp have also rallied behind him.
In an attempt to distinguish herself, Pécresse insists that her programme – apart from its economic aspects – is opposed to Macron’s, which she considers particularly lax on security and immigration issues.
The right-wing candidate also questioned Macron’s credibility, stating that he wants “to make people believe he will do in the next five years what he has not done in the last five”. Pécresse argues that she is capable of implementing reforms.
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A more right-leaning electorate
Macron’s strategy, which he started implementing in 2017, consists of destabilising – and even assimilating – the moderate right.
The day after he was first elected five years ago, he asked several right-wing personalities to join his government – former prime minister Edouard Philippe and the current economy and interior ministers, Bruno Le Maire and Gérald Darmanin.
This strategy made it possible to attract more right-wing voters gradually.
For the first time, those French citizens who voted for a right-wing candidate in 2017 would be more likely to vote in favour of someone other than a right-wing politician.
Among those voters, 39% will opt for Macron, compared to the 36% who favour Pécresse, the latest survey by the Ipsos polling institute, published on Monday (21 March), showed.
The pool of voters whose favourite candidate would not make it to the second round are also more likely to favour Macron’s right, as left-wing and green candidates are polling worse than their right-wing rivals.
On top of that, Les Républicains voters might also be swayed since half of them are still not sure whether they should give their vote to Pecresse.
Asked about offering Pécresse a ministry in his next government if he were re-elected, Macron said he “would not exclude anything”.
All you really need to know about the French presidential election
On 10 and 24 April, the French will go to the polls to choose the president of the republic for the next five years.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor]
Source: euractiv.com
