PECRESS PROGRAM. Valérie Pécresse proposes a program “of order in the accounts and in the street”. Here is the summary of his project, with among others its main measures for the economy, culture and education.
Valérie Pécresse is running for the first time in the presidential election, she is the first woman to represent the historical party of the French right. She promises in particular “twice as much savings” (84 billion euros) as expenses (42 billion) for her five-year term. Overview of the various measures proposed by candidate LR for this 2022 presidential election, also available in PDF.
Budgetary rigor is the line defended, for theeconomy, by Valérie Pécresse, who accuses Emmanuel Macron “of having burned the cash register”. To finance its priorities, it advances 76 billion euros in spending cuts over the five-year term and wants to return to “3% deficit in 2027”. Its main sources of savings lie in the fight against tax and social fraud, to the tune of 15 billion euros, the reduction of “ineffective aid to businesses” (15 billion), the pension reform (14 billion) and , above all, the elimination of 200,000 civil servant posts (15.5 billion euros). Valérie Pécresse swears that she can achieve such reductions in the “administering administration” with, in return, the creation of 50,000 positions in the hospital, justice and education.
For the culture, candidate LR emphasizes arts and cultural education (EAC). She wants to “develop school outings and pair each school with a cultural establishment in its territory”. In addition, “all cultural structures supported by public funds” will have to develop an EAC policy. On the creation side, Valérie Pécresse wants to oblige “each major Parisian cultural establishment to devote a significant part of its budget to the distribution of its creations throughout France”. If elected, the candidate will launch “a policy of commissioning young creators in favor of museums outside Paris”, provided that the works created circulate on the territory.
In terms ofeducation, the candidate wishes to give more “autonomy” to establishments, including high schools. She wants to be based on “volunteering” and ensures that “each establishment will be able to ask for new skills, new freedoms”. The candidate also proposes the creation of “innovative public establishments, 100% autonomous, public and free”, inspired by “charter schools” in the United States. They allow teachers to be freely recruited. The students themselves are not selected but may be excluded in the event of non-compliance with the “charter” signed with the establishment. Valérie Pécresse also wants to “set a ceiling [d’élèves] non-French speakers per class, to guarantee the quality of learning”.
- Among the other measures of candidate LR, we find the 10% increase in wages net private income of up to 2.2 SMIC, announced at the end of summer 2021. Since then, Valérie Pécresse has however revised her promise, under pressure from employers in particular. In its new version, the State will finance from the summer of 2022 a drop of 2.4 points in employees’ old-age contributions, with the direct consequence of a 3% increase in net wages. This measure, which aims to improve the purchasing power of the French, will concern everyone, although high salaries, for whom these contributions are capped, will observe a less substantial increase.
- Another measure aimed at increasing the purchasing power of the French: the tax exemption of overtime without restriction or ceiling. Because after being abandoned by François Hollande, tax-exempt overtime was reinstated by Emmanuel Macron in January 2019. The objective at the time was to make a gesture while the anger of the Yellow Vests was in full swing. However, it had been chosen to cap at 5,000 net taxable euros per year. It is essentially this ceiling that Valérie Pécresse proposes to blow up.
- Valérie Pécresse also wishes to exempt all estates up to 200,000 euros per child. It would thus double the amount from which inheritance is taxed today. “I remove inheritance rights for 95% of French people”, notably highlighted the candidate LR in the columns of Figaro. Note however, as Le Monde reports, that today already 85% of French people are in fact exempt. In this same inheritance file, Valérie Pécresse also indicated that she wanted to increase the ceiling for donations during the lifetime of tax-exempt donors. She chairs, each parent will be able to give 100,000 euros, during his lifetime, every six years, against 15 years currently. A measure that would also concern grandchildren.
- In terms of the security, Valérie Pécresse has several flagship measures. One of them is to free up five billion euros to equip police officers. Valérie Pécresse also wants to restore the automatic minimum sentences. Violent repeat offenders and drug traffickers would be affected. The candidate of the Les Républicains party would also like to create the so-called “punch” brigades, with recourse to the military “if necessary”, in “difficult neighborhoods”. Invited to the Grand Jury of RTL, Le Figaro and LCI on December 5, she had mentioned no less than “62 republican reconquest zones”.
- About immigration, the candidate Les Républicains indicated that she wanted to limit immigration with “reception quotas by profession and by country”. “Uncontrolled immigration without integration can dislocate a society. Let’s introduce quotas voted each year by Parliament”, she confided to Figaro in July 2021. Candidate LR also wants to abolish the payment of social benefits to all foreigners. If she settles at the Élysée, Valérie Pécresse proposes to condition these benefits to “five years of regular residence”.
- Regarding ecology and the environment, Valérie Pécresse has announced that she wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The one who calls herself a “results ecologist” also proposes to relaunch existing nuclear power plants and build six EPRs, or to decarbonize public and individual transport .
- On the retreats, Valérie Pécresse wants to introduce retirement at age 65 by 2030. will have to work longer.” Concretely, on the airwaves of RTL, at the beginning of January, Valérie Pécresse indicated proposing “to go up to 65 years very gradually, obviously not for the French who are worn out by their work and I propose to revalue the minimum contributory up to the net minimum wage, that is to say 1,230 euros today.
- Finally, on the front of the healthValérie Pécresse would like to recruit 25,000 caregivers in five years in the public hospital.
If you want to have more details and see all the measures proposed by candidate Valérie Pécresse, it’s online, on her campaign site. Find his program here.