After the European wave, the National Rally is watering its wine. The party is in the lead in the polls for the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. But while he is the favorite for Matignon, Jordan Bardella seems to be revising his program downwards. We will have to “make choices”, admits the president of the RN in an interview at the Parisian Monday evening. Zigzag on retirements, measures postponed… About ten days before the first round, the RN campaign seems to be in complete turmoil.
Cacophony over pension reform
The repeal of the pension reform, which raised the retirement age to 64, was one of the mantras of the RN since 2023. It no longer seems to be a “priority”. “We will see”, evaded Jordan Bardella last week, deeming the subject “important” but not “priority”. After days of uncertainty, the party president finally corrected the situation, indicating that Emmanuel Macron’s text would indeed be “repealed” from the fall. But Eric Ciotti, the new ally, defends a liberal economic project at the antipodes, and in particular retirement at 65. The boss of the LR also announced on Monday evening that it was “not said” that the reform would be buried, at the risk of further confusing the economic message of the “national camp” in the event of access to power. .
Because this promise is not the only one to have been rejected. The abolition of VAT on “essential products” has been postponed to “a second phase”. And the abolition of income tax for those under 30 is no longer relevant. “There is no renunciation, but when you arrive at the helm, you have a timetable based on emergencies,” explains Julien Odoul, outgoing RN deputy for Yonne. “The urgency is purchasing power with the cancellation of the increase in gas pricesand the reduction in VAT on energy and fuel [de 20 à 5,5 %] “, he said.
A risk of being “put under guardianship”
To justify these foot changes, Jordan Bardella mentioned on Europe 1 Tuesday the “near-bankrupt financial situation” of the country, with 3,000 billion in public debt, and the need to “put the state’s accounts in order”. “We are going to launch an audit on the financial situation of the country. We will have levers to find money from social fraud or immigration, but it will take a little time,” assures Julien Odoul.
The RN is trying to reassure economic circles while the Institut Montaigne, a liberal think tank, estimated that its 2022 presidential project would increase by around 100 billion euros per year the public deficit. A figure also taken up by the Head of State and the Macronists to attack the RN project. Bruno Le Maire thus mentioned the risk of France being “put under supervision” by the European Commission and the IMF, in an interview with the newspaper The world.
Spectacular programmatic variations
These variations do not only concern the economic field, but also “emblematic” measures, such as the ban on the wearing of the veil in public spaces or the national priority, postponed until after 2027. “It is no longer the National Rally is the National Denial”, tackled the Minister of the Economy on. For the first time this Tuesday, Jordan Bardella also indicated that he would not accept Matignon without an absolute majority on July 7. “At the RN everything is approximation and denial. […] There is less and less program and more and more conditions, it is starting to look like a refusal of obstacles,” mocked the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal.
In recent years, Marine Le Pen’s party has already experienced spectacular turnarounds on leaving the European Union, the euro or the Schengen area. Would these developments cause confusion within the movement itself? Last week, the vice-president of the RN Sébastien Chenu got himself mixed up by defending the abolition of dual extra-European nationality. A historic measure… but abandoned in 2022.