The National Rally presented its counter-budget this Thursday, October 23, in the presence of Marine Le Pen and deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy, the party’s specialist in economic and budgetary issues. The latter intended to reveal a very different version from that of Sébastien Lecornu’s government, to mark their opposition and their orientations. The RN proposes a significantly clearer reduction of the public deficit in 2026, without freezing social benefits or increasing mandatory contributions, while implementing its pension reform project.
In detail, Marine Le Pen’s party plans to reduce the public deficit to 107 billion euros next year, compared to 147 billion (4.7% of GDP) in the government’s draft budget, a difference of 40 billion euros. To achieve this, it is betting above all on enormous budgetary savings (close to 57 billion euros according to its calculations), three times higher than those anticipated by the executive (17 billion euros).
In his words, this clear reduction would be relatively painless, since his party intends to prioritize expenses considered “ineffective” or “useless”, such as France’s contribution to the budget of the European Union (8.7 billion euros of savings), the budget of state agencies and operators (7.7 billion euros), that of public development aid (2.4 billion euros), “associations not covered by the general interest” (3.2 billion euros) and the “state lifestyle” (500 million euros).
This category also includes devices aimed at the ecological transition. The Green Fund, for example, would be scrapped “excluding flood and bushfire expenditure”, as would the cycling scheme. Public broadcasting would also see part of its funding reduced, without reaching privatization, which will however continue to be in the party’s program if it comes to power. In total, with these “useless” or “ineffective” expenses, the RN aims to save 36,000 million euros, approximately the budget of the Ministry of the Interior.
Elimination of certain social benefits for foreigners
According to its program, the party also hopes to save with measures aimed at immigration (11.9 billion euros in total), without having to modify the Constitution. The RN intends, in particular, to withdraw 6.1 billion euros from the elimination of solidarity benefits for foreigners who have not worked for 5 years. State medical aid would also be transformed into emergency medical aid (1.3 billion) and visas to receive medical care would also be eliminated.
Also in terms of savings, local authorities would also be asked to make an effort of 5 billion euros, approximately what is foreseen in the current budget. Another, more technical option would be to reform the use of short-term debt by the State, as already proposed by the RN, expecting a significant reduction in spending, of the order of 2.5 billion euros.
According to the idea of the National Rally, these massive savings would allow very important tax cuts (25 billion euros in total). As in its previous programs, the party proposes the reduction of VAT on energy from 20% to 5.5% and its elimination on “100 essential products”. Compared to the current draft budget, the RN would maintain the flat-rate reduction that retirees currently benefit from in income tax and oppose the tax on small plots, which is not yet applied. These two measures are included among its mandatory contribution reductions for 2026.
Resumption of production tax reduction
So, the National Rally’s proposals to reactivate economic activity are rather a continuation of the program carried out since Emmanuel Macron came to power. They include, in particular, some measures already contained in the budget, such as the reduction of certain production taxes (CFE, C3S, CVAE), with a cost of 16.2 billion euros. Eager to give guarantees to economic circles, Jean-Philippe Tanguy was careful to remember that these measures “went further” than the program presented by the RN in 2022.
These tax cuts, demanded by business organizations, have however not shown “significant results”, according to the Institute of Public Policies (IPP), which recently analyzed the effects of the reduction of the CVAE (Contribution to the added value of companies) and the CFE (Equity contribution of companies) since 2021. The RN, however, would be distinguished from the government version by not resuming the elimination of the tax exemptions. contribution for apprentices.
The RN adds to this counterbudget a chapter that foresees tax increases, significantly lower than those proposed by the Socialist Party, expecting a lot from its plans to tax “speculation” (12,000 million euros in total), focusing on share buybacks, “intraday” financial transactions and “super dividends.” In addition, the richest would also have to contribute through a tax on financial wealth (4 billion euros) and certain tax loopholes would be eliminated, such as the bonus enjoyed by journalists, for a saving of 100 million euros.
Source: BFM TV
