Marine Le Pen unveils fiscal plan to reduce French national debt

Marine Le Pen unveiled a fiscal plan on Tuesday targeting a national debt reduction to 112% of GDP by the end of a presidential term, up against the 119% projected for the current year.

The National Rally leader outlined the strategy as a necessary adjustment to rescue French public accounts from what she termed the drift under Emmanuel Macron. Highlighting the pressure from financial markets, she warned that France risks default without a political rupture.

Scaling the Savings Target Amid Rising Costs

The proposed adjustment has grown significantly. Initial proposals before 2030 aimed for 125 billion euros in savings. However, shifting macroeconomic realities altered those figures.

Le Pen indicated that this threshold remains vulnerable to further degradation before the second round of voting on May 2.

Pension Adjustments and Tax Cuts Fund Savings Strategy

Pension adjustments form a core pillar of the savings strategy. Plans include modifying current retirement measures to generate between 15 and 20 billion euros over time. This capital aims to fund a new pension framework while lowering the structural deficit.

The approach seeks to balance lowering the retirement age to 62 or 60 while establishing a collective and individual capitalization pillar.

On the taxation front, the program promises at least 30 billion euros in net tax reductions. Production taxes account for 20 billion euros of those cuts. The plan also targets administrative paperwork reduction.

Constitutional Rule Targets Public Deficit and Spending Drops

Public deficit figures must drop below 3% by 2030, according to the presented timeline. The proposal forecasts public deficit dropping below 2.5% of GDP by the conclusion of the mandate in 2032.

Public spending would fall below 50% of GDP, down from over 57%. Achieving these metrics relies on introducing a constitutional budgetary rule via referendum.

The proposed rule restricts public deficits below the debt-stabilizing threshold while debt exceeds 60% of GDP. This mechanism rejects arbitrary fixed targets like a flat 1% deficit in favor of a threshold tied directly to national debt stabilization.