Pensions, education, security, immigration… Find the main measures of the National Rally (RN) program before the second round of legislative elections on Sunday July 7.
Having come out on top in the first round of the legislative elections on Sunday, June 30 (with 29.25% of the vote, +3.90% for the LR-RN allies), the National Rally could become the leading parliamentary group in the National Assembly on the evening of the second round on Sunday, July 7. Will it nevertheless be in a position of absolute majority? Jordan Bardella, the leader of the RN, hopes so and has called on his voters to form a government majority for him to impose cohabitation on Emmanuel Macron.
To do this, he is counting on several points presented as “priorities” in his program for the legislative elections, a roadmap unveiled in the wake of a clear success in the European elections on June 9. During the three-week express campaign, the RN insisted on purchasing power, security and immigration, three themes that should be hammered home again in the final hours before the second round.
The RN has especially striven to counter criticism and insisted on its ability to govern. “We are ready to govern,” Jordan Bardella stressed in the preamble to the detailed presentation of the program on June 24, before detailing the schedule of desired reforms, divided into several periods. After “the first emergencies,” the “time for reforms” would thus come, with several markers each time: purchasing power first, security and immigration, then a new reform of pensions or national education. Here is a summary of the main points of the RN program.
The right of the soil, a questionable point
This point of the RN program was presented by Jordan Bardella as “the third major emergency” of the National Rally’s roadmap. The party aims to pass “an emergency law” as early as the summer to eliminate the right of birth. “The automatic acquisition of French nationality is no longer justified in a world of eight billion individuals, and while the daily trials of our inability to integrate and assimilate are multiplying on our soil,” justified the leader of the RN.
Today, several lawyers point out that the right of the soil is not automatic and remains subject to conditions. Being born in France is not enough to automatically obtain French nationality. French nationality can thus be granted to a child born in France to two foreign parents but on condition that the child resides in France at the age of 18 and has lived in the country for at least 5 years since the age of 11. Another possible condition for obtaining French nationality is to be born in France and that one of the parents was themselves born on French soil. Jordan Bardella, however, drew a parallel with Mayotte where, since the Asylum and Immigration Act of 2018, the right of the soil has been limited to new conditions including the fact that one of the parents resides in France regularly with a residence permit and for more than three uninterrupted months.
Pensions, a vague point in the RN project?
This is one of the points of the RN program that was widely discussed during the legislative election campaign: the pension reform project. This point particularly caught the attention during the debate organized Tuesday, June 25 on TF1 between Manuel Bompard of the New Popular Front, Gabriel Attal of Ensemble and therefore Jordan Bardella for the RN.
Jordan Bardella had confirmed at the start of the campaign that the reform implemented in 2022 by Emmanuel Macron would be “in principle” repealed. During the debate, Jordan Bardella mainly returned to the choice of an earlier retirement for workers who started working early. Thus, taking the example given by Gilles Bouleau, organizer of the debate, a worker who started working at the age of 17 would retire at the age of 60 if the RN came to power and passed its reform, strong in its new majority.
What about employees and workers who started working later? Again taking the presenter’s example of a person who started working at the age of 24, the RN leader specified that his project included a contribution period of 42 years, i.e. retirement at 66, later than currently where the legal age is 64 (for a full-rate retirement at 67).
“For a very simple reason: when you started working later, it is normal that you are led to work later,” he judged. “I prefer to prioritize the French who started working very early, beyond that, it is normal that there is a progression that is put in place”, this progression should revolve “around a pivot age of 62 years and 42 years of contributions”. The full-rate retirement age could therefore, in the case of an employee who started at 24, be brought forward from 67 to 66 years, but the employees concerned could no longer benefit from an early retirement at 64, even with a reduction in their retirement pension.
“A big bang of authority” at school
Another important point in the National Rally’s program is Education. We will note in particular the desire for a “big bang of authority” in schools, from the next September school year. With this formula, the RN sees in particular the banning of mobile phones in school premises, even in high schools. Symbolic announcements are also there, such as the continuation of the experimentation of uniforms or the obligatory use of the formal “vous” by teachers. “Minimum sanctions” in disciplinary councils, the removal of allowances and scholarships in the event of serious and repeated disruptions” are also on the program, such as the opening of specialized centers reserved for “disruptive or harassing students”. The single college would thus be replaced by a “modular college” with faster orientation.
What measures on purchasing power?
On purchasing power, a central point of the RN’s argument in this campaign, as Jordan Bardella chooses to insist on the French people’s electricity bills, the party founded by Marine Le Pen on the ashes of the FN, insists on the choice to reduce energy prices, by playing on VAT, both for electricity and for gas, fuel oil or fuel. A reduction in VAT to 5.5% had been mentioned. Jordan Bardella confirmed a reduction but with a view to harmonizing it with our European neighbors. The figure of 5.5% has not been confirmed. It would cost the State 7 billion euros by the end of 2024. A French price for electricity will be reinstated, going against European rules and on the model taken by Spain in recent months. Jordan Bardella also confirmed the RN’s wish to review rental bans in the event of a poor energy performance diagnosis (DPE), thus targeting “thermal sieves”, and eased the objective of zero net artificialization of land by 2050.
What promises on taxes?
In terms of taxes, the RN aims for the repeal of the IFI (property wealth tax) and the return of the IFS (wealth tax). Jordan Bardella also specified on June 24 his wish to establish a full tax share for a second child, to deal with “a birth rate crisis”, and the elimination of inheritance tax for low-income households and the middle classes. A tax exemption on gifts from parents to their children or grandchildren of up to 100,000 euros per year for every ten is also on the agenda (compared to 15 years today).
Also worth noting is a more symbolic measure aimed at combating medical deserts: retired doctors who resume work as part of the combined employment-retirement scheme would be exempt from income tax.
What project on immigration issues?
On immigration, considered a “priority” of the RN program, Jordan Bardella confirms a measure already announced by the RN in its recent programs: the end of the right of the soil for a better “control of immigration”. The reform of the rules of family reunification and the suspension of regularizations by the prefects of foreigners in an irregular situation are also in the program and would be subject to a referendum to include them in the fundamental law and “to be made untouchable by European or international case law”.
Some jobs would be closed to dual nationals, such as “certain positions in strategic sectors linked to security or defense, reserved for French citizens.”
On security issues, what does the RN propose?
The RN’s programme also includes the re-establishment of minimum sentences, particularly for “attacks on persons carrying out a public service mission” and in drug trafficking cases, as well as the removal of allowances for parents of repeat minor offenders.
What is the RN’s position on the war in Ukraine? What does the program say?
On Ukraine, the RN leader reiterated his party’s position: continued support for Ukraine but without sending equipment that could lead to an escalation, for example by delivering weapons that could target Russian cities. “I believe that this would create the conditions first of all for interference by France and the conditions for an escalation against a power that is a nuclear power.” A red line is also recalled: no sending of French troops to Ukraine.