French President Emmanuel Macron presented his government plan for a second term at the head of the country on Thursday, two weeks after officially announcing his candidacy. The first round of presidential elections takes place on April 10.
Based on the resumption of proposals for economic reforms — difficult in his first term in the midst of large protests and the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic — the 30-page program also projects a France with greater military spending and that seeks more autonomy in sectors considered strategies by Macron.
At a press conference in Aubervilliers, outside Paris, the French president estimated the plan would cost around €50 billion a year, plus €15 billion in tax cuts for businesses and families.
According to the president, one of the ways to finance the expenses would be the simplification and unification of pension systems in France and the increase of the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. In 2019, hundreds of thousands of French people took to the streets to protest against government proposals on the subject.
“It is normal, especially given the current situation of public accounts, that we work more,” Macron said.
The reference to the country’s finances evokes the efforts made by the country to try to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. France forecasts a debt equivalent to 113% of GDP in 2022.
In the president’s favor, on the other hand, the resumption of economic growth after the pandemic chaos, in addition to an unemployment rate of 7.4%.
“The unemployment rate is the lowest in almost 15 years. Nobody would have imagined that we could have these results coming out of one of the most serious economic crises in recent decades,” said Minister of Labor and Employment Elisabeth Borne in a program on public radio France. Inter
Macron is favorite to win the first round and should face, in the second stage of the election, Marine Le Pen, defeated in 2017, or polemicist Eric Zemmour, both coming from the far right and respectively in second and third position in the polls.
The president appealed to the voters of the two competitors by promising to tighten the conditions for a foreigner to obtain residence permits, strengthen border controls and facilitate the expulsion of people who have had their asylum application refused by the government.
The two adversaries are currently also trying to detach themselves from a recent past of praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, today the great rival of the European Union, a project that Macron has been enthusiastic about since the campaign for his first term and promises to reinforce in the second term.
Macron played the role of mediator of the then only possible conflict in Eastern Europe and met with Putin in moments of tension before the invasion of Ukraine. What in the eyes of the world seemed like a failure, internally unfolded in the increase in favoritism of the president for reelection.
With the war on European soil, the Frenchman reinforced at the press conference in which he announced his government plan that will increase military spending “to be able to face a high-intensity war, which can return to our continent”. He also stated that he wants to double the number of reservists in France.
Another key point of the program highlighted by Macron for the second term is the “massive” increase in investment for what he called the independence of the agricultural and industrial sectors, in addition to the presentation of an investment plan in clean energy.
The president reinforced the intention for the country to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, reducing dependence on gas and oil and boosting its current main source of energy, nuclear, with the construction of new plants.
