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The cost of living has been identified as the most relevant issue for the French in this election, as France faces its highest inflation since the late 1990s. Here, the main economic issues that dominated the last presidential debate before the elections of the April 24.
A recent Ipsos poll says that 65 percent of voters in France were worried about energy prices and more than half were worried about general inflation.
Facing the second presidential round, the candidates showed their economic cards in the last debate before citizens go to the polls again. And they took the opportunity to criticize each other.
A single public to conquer and two different proposals
Emmanuel Macron launched his re-election bid with a hard-to-digest warning for many voters: “They will have to work harder if I win.” And it is that the pension issue has become the battle horse of both candidates.
The legal retirement age in France today is 62 years, but the presidential candidate seeks to raise it to 65, arguing that only then can the viability of the system be preserved.
Our system of withdrawal for partition is a threat. Je veux le maintenir al finançant des progrès sociaux comme la retraite minimum à 1100 euros par mois ou la juste rétribution des métiers les most difficiles. #DébatMacronLePen pic.twitter.com/2YEtioRppM
— Emmanuel Macron avec vous (@avecvous) April 20, 2022
While proposing to lower the retirement age even to 60, Le Pen has described Macron’s plan as “totally unfair”, while the president has told voters that any candidate who says the pension system can prevent reforms, he is lying to them.
“You never explain how you finance yourself (…) you are not honest with people.” “Either you have hidden taxes, or you are going to put pensions at risk,” Macron said during the debate.
President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign has also focused on tripling the amount of a tax-free bonus that employers can offer their employees, as well as making it harder to access unemployment benefits to encourage them to stay in the job market.
Le Pen, for his part, proposes to reduce the sales tax on gasoline, gas and electricity from the current 20% to 5.5%, as well as completely eliminate this levy for about a hundred essential items.
In Macron’s opinion, this would benefit the high incomes and not the most disadvantaged, and he defended the price blockade that he has already put in place as president, which, he defended, “has allowed France to have half the inflation that Spain” .
In addition to inflation, taxes, wages and social inequality round out the list of specific areas of distress for French households. And the proposals of both candidates on each front will be decisive to win the votes next Sunday.
With EFE, Reuters, AFP
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