French parliamentary elections: What are the main parties’ policies?
The landscape is dominated by the far-right Rassemblement National, the centrist Renaissance and left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire
Clockwise from left: Prime Minister Gabriel Attal figurehead of the centrist Renaissance party; Jordan Badella with Marine Le Pen, leaders of the far-right Rassemblement National; Mathilde Panot with the other leaders of the Nouveau Front Populaire left-wing alliance
Antonin Albert / Juergen Nowak / Obatala-photography / Shutterstock
France’s political landscape has changed since the victory of the far right in the European parliamentary elections and President Macron’s subsequent announcement of snap French parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7.
The 2024 parliamentary elections are essentially a three-way tug-of-war between the far-right Rassemblement National party, the centrist Renaissance and the left-wing alliance of the Nouveau Front Populaire.
The previous main parties, the right-wing Républicains (previously UMP) and the left-wing Parti Socialiste, have either fallen into a political no-man's-land or form part of a wider alliance.
We look at key points of the three main parties’ stated policies below:
Rassemblement National (RN):
Immigration: This is described as a priority topic along with security and reducing the cost of living. The aim is stated to be to cut illegal and legal immigration, including an end to automatic French citizenship for people born to foreign parents on French soil, known as the droit du sol.
Read more: Dual nationals banned from some French jobs under far-right plans
Taxes: Ending income tax for under-30s and to replace France’s property wealth tax with an investment wealth tax. It also proposes removing inheritance tax for low to middle-income households and to replace the property wealth tax with an investment wealth tax
Cost of living: RN claims that it would keep the price of electricity “close to production costs”, cutting VAT on electricity and gas from 20% to 5.5%.
Retirement: Previously critical of President Macron’s recent retirement age increases (from 62 to 64), it is making no promise to reverse them.
Schools: ‘A big-bang’ of authority in school, including bans on mobile phones and an expansion of the experiments with uniforms (introduced by Gabriel Attal) from September
Other: It wants to ‘eradicate Islamist ideology’ and stop reduced prison sentences.
Read more: Dual nationals banned from some French jobs under far-right plans
Nouveau Front Populaire:
This left-wing alliance includes the Green Party, the Parti Socialist, the Communist Party and La France Insoumise along with several others
Immigration: It would reverse tougher immigration laws and make access to visas and 10-year residency cards easier.
Taxes: To restore the wealth tax (ISF), introduce a new ‘flat-tax’ on investments, “less tax” for everyone who earns less than €4,000 a month and nine more income tax bands for high earners, rising to 90% for people on more than €400,000 a year. It also wants to reintroduce an ‘exit tax’ for tax exiles.
Cost of living: A €200/month boost to the minimum wage
Retirement: To cancel the increase in the retirement age (from 62 to 64) and to return to retirement at age 60.
Housing: To increase the APL housing allowance by 10%
Read more: Programmes, dates, risks: a guide to France's snap elections
Renaissance:
Immigration: New French tests to obtain cartes de séjour, although parliament already approved this as part of the 2024 immigration law
Taxes: Taxes will not increase
Cost of living: A 15% drop in electricity bills this winter, and social charge cuts on low-level salaries
Retirement: A €1/ month retirees’ health top-up mutuelle
Property: No notaire fees for first-time homebuyers
Other: An expansion of the four-day week for people working from home. Single parents sharing child care should have a right to adapt their hours.
Read more: Macron: why I called snap French election and won’t resign if we lose
