By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters). – On April 24, the French will choose whether they want to re-elect President Emmanuel Macron, a pro-business centrist president, or to end decades of consensus and elect Marine Le Pen.

Let’s see what they have to say about major topics.

The Economy:

LE PEN : LE PEN – The former National Front was transformed by the far-right heir, who has made her father’s party of free-market small government into a large-spending protectionist party.

The “Buy French” strategy for public tenders will reduce the age of retirement to 60 for all who have started working before 20, eliminate income tax on those under 30, and lower VAT (energy) to 5.5% instead of 20%.

Over 5 years, she would spend 2 billion euros ($2.18 trillion) on raising salaries of hospital employees and recruiting 10,000 more. Over 5 years, teachers’ salaries will rise by 15%

Gilles Ivaldi (political scientist, Sciences-Po) says Sciences-Po’s party’s economic plan is farther to the left now than for many decades.

MACRON – The French leader intends to increase the number of supply-side measures he took on during his first term. However, the key plank in his manifesto is an increase in minimum pension age to 65 instead of 62.

Macron has also promised to make certain welfare benefits contingent on 15-20 hours of training. It is similar to the policies implemented in Britain or the United States.

The strength of the economy would link unemployment insurance which, currently, guarantees up to 2/3 of workers’ salaries for two years in the event of their loss of employment.

He has promised that benefits will be automatic to those who are eligible, rather than requiring recipients to apply. This is in an effort to keep his motto “neither right nor left” true.

EUROPE:

LE PEN. Despite her abandonment of earlier plans to withdraw from the euro and repay France’s debts in new francs she still pledged to decrease contributions to European Union coffers. Paris would be in a difficult spot if she made such a decision.

In a contest to EU’s highest court she insists that French law must prevail. She also says that she would like to eventually replace the EU by a “Europea of nations”, but she is yet to define what this might look like.

Le Pen also plans to employ thousands of additional customs agents in France to inspect goods coming into France from EU countries. This is purportedly done to combat fraud. Analysts claim that it would harm the single market.

MACRON – The ardent Europhile will continue to push for Europe’s “strategic independence” in defense, technology and energy, and less dependence on the rest of the world.

Macron sought to change the EU’s stance towards protectionism over the past five year, blocking free-trade agreements with Mercosur and creating an inspection mechanism that increases the scrutiny on outside takeovers.

Macron will likely push for greater regulation of U.S. technology giants. He has also stated that he wants to establish a European metaverse to rival Facebook’s (NASDAQ:).

– THE WESTERN ALIANCE

LE PEN – Le Pen is attempting to force France to withdraw from the transatlantic NATO military alliance’s integrated command. This would be a direct challenge to West’s post-1945 security architecture.

Oponents claim she is too closely associated with Moscow. In 2014, her party was granted a loan by a Russian bank. She also received an invitation from Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin just before 2017’s presidential election.

Although she condemned Russia’s invading of Ukraine, she believes that Moscow may be a good ally once again after the war.

Interview with Reuters: She called herself a “Gaullist”, referring to wartime leader Charles de Gaulle.

When asked if she has a message for France’s allies Britain and America, she replied: “Drop any preconceived notions you may have about me.”

MACRON. Despite Macron’s skepticism about the transatlantic alliance (notably in Eastern Europe and Germany) in his 2019 call for NATO to be “brain-dead”, he now claims that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “jolted it back into life”.

However, he would still like to see Europeans become less dependent upon the U.S. for their security.

Macron has called for the EU’s attention to the Indo-Pacific, China’s increasing influence in the region. He clashed with Washington and London after Australia dropped a major submarine deal with France.

The question of whether or not he would cooperate with the U.S., UK-Australia security alliance (dubbed AUKUS) against China has been a concern.

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