Costly election pledges in France stoke fears of splurges

PARIS

Vying to oust the centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron in an upcoming two-round parliamentary election June 30 and July 7, French political parties of both the far right and far left are vowing to cut gasoline taxes, let workers retire earlier and raise wages.

Their campaign pledges threaten to bust an already-swollen government budget, push up French interest rates and strain France’s relations with the European Union.

The political extremes are benefiting from widespread voter discontent about painful price rises, squeezed household budgets and other hardships. 

Macron acknowledged that National Rally’s economic pledges “perhaps make people happy,” but claimed they would cost 100 billion euros ($107 billion) annually. And the left’s plans, he charged, are “four times worse in terms of cost.’’

Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president gunning to become France’s prime minister in the election, poo-poos the figure cited by Macron, saying it was “pulled out of the government’s hat.” But Bardella has yet to detail how much his party’s plans would cost or to say how they’d be paid for.

Likewise, the New Popular Front’s 23-page list of campaign pledges doesn’t cost them out or detail how they’d be financed. 

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon says its platform would require 200 billion euros ($214 billion) in public spending over five years but would generate 230 billion euros ($246 billion) in revenue by stimulating France’s economy.

Bardella vows to slash sales taxes — from 20 percent to 5.5 percent — on fuel, electricity and gas.

The Paris-based Institut Montaigne think tank estimates the cost of that pledge at between 9 billion and 13.6 billion euros ($9.6 billion to $14.5 billion) annually in lost revenue. 

On the left, the New Popular Front pledges to freeze prices for essentials as part of a package to help some of France’s poorest.

It’s also promising a considerable bump in the minimum wage, raising it by 200 euros ($214) to 1,600 euros ($1,711) net per month. The Institut Montaigne says that those two pledges together could amount to an annual hit of between 12.5 billion euros ($13.4 billion) and 41.5 billion euros ($44.4 billion) for public finances. It also warns that the wage bump could hurt the economy and jobs by making labor costlier.

Both the left and the right pledge to roll back pension reforms that Macron railroaded through parliament last year in the face of massive street protests, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 to help finance the pension system.

France already is operating with a higher debt load than European neighbors, with its public debt at an estimated 112 percent of the size of its economy. That compares with less than 90 percent for the eurozone overall and just 63 percent for Germany.