What
Changes Would a Far-Right Government Bring to France?
The
far-right party National Rally may end up governing France. Although it has
evolved, its basic philosophy remains: Immigrants are a threat to the country’s
safety and economy.
Jordan
Bardella, the president of the right-wing party National Rally party,
delivering a speech after preliminary results of the first round of the French
parliamentary elections, in Paris, last weekend.
Catherine
Porter
By Catherine
Porter
Reporting
from Paris
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/world/europe/france-national-rally-policies.html
Published
July 2, 2024
Updated July
6, 2024
Jordan
Bardella, the far-right National Rally leader who may become France’s next
prime minister, has repeated the same basic promises since a snap election was
called in France.
If his party
forms the country’s government, he will greatly reduce immigration, cut taxes
and crack down on crime, he says.
But the
National Rally is the heir to a political tradition in France associated with
overt racism, antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and though the party has
distanced itself from that past, some basic philosophies remain embedded in its
policies: Immigrants pose a threat to France’s security, economy and national
identity.
Among Mr.
Bardella’s plans are stripping away the automatic right to French citizenship
at age 18 to children born in France to non-French parents; ending free medical
treatment for undocumented people, except in emergencies; and restricting
citizens with second passports from taking jobs deemed sensitive, like running
a nuclear plant and working in “strategic” defense.
He also
wants to block convicted criminals from living in public housing and slash the
country’s sales tax on all forms of energy, from fuel to electricity.
How he will
do these things is not entirely clear. The party’s 21-page program, bursting
with photos and graphics, is thick with sweeping ideas but thin on details on
how to implement them. And over the past weeks of furious campaigning and
debates, Mr. Bardella has backpedaled some pledges or placed them on the shelf
for later.
But even
some of the measures that have consistently remained in his plan — like the
stripping away of some automatic citizenship rights — and that he wants to put
in place immediately are likely to face pushback from President Emmanuel Macron
and the country’s constitutional council.
And then
there is the question of how Mr. Bardella would pay for it all.
“They will
have difficulties putting some of their program into place,” said Rémi
Lefebvre, a professor of political science at the University of Lille.
It’s not
even clear that Mr. Bardella, 28, will become France’s next prime minister. His
party and its allies won about 33 percent of the popular vote for the 577-seat
National Assembly in the first of a two-round election last weekend. But only
38 of their candidates won their seats outright.
Most of the
rest will face a determining second vote on Sunday, and a national movement has
been building across the country to prevent them from gaining an absolute
majority. More than 200 of their challengers have bowed out of three-way races,
offering extra votes to the strongest opponent to block them.
Mr. Bardella
has said he would not take the job of prime minister without an absolute
majority of 289 seats. But if he does become prime minister, he has promised
that his government would put in place a generous handful of measures this
summer.
Some bills
are in line with his party’s anti-immigration beliefs like the restriction on
dual citizens taking certain jobs, as well as the end of some free medical
treatment for undocumented people.
Over the
next years, Mr. Bardella has promised to carry out the party’s long-held tenet
of “national preference” — giving French citizens favored treatment over
foreigners for certain government jobs, benefits or subsidies.
The measures
are likely to be rejected by the country’s top constitutional council, said
Anne-Charlène Bezzina, an associate professor in public law and a
constitutional expert at the University of Rouen Normandy.
Just this
past spring, the court ruled against limits on social benefits for non-French
citizens who have been in the country for less than five years, stating that
such restrictions would disproportionately infringe upon the right to national
solidarity that is enshrined in France’s Constitution.
Allocating
benefits by separating people based on birth or citizenship cuts against the
fundamental constructs of the French Republic, dating to the era of
Enlightenment and enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen of 1789, Ms. Bezzina explained.
“You can’t
differentiate between French people who are national or binational,” she said
in an interview. “It’s the same for differentiating French by birthright or
blood. It goes against the principle of equality.”
Mr.
Bardella’s program acknowledges this barrier and pushes for a change to the
Constitution by calling a referendum. However, only the president has the final
power to do that, Ms. Bezzina noted. And Mr. Macron has said he opposes many of
the National Rally’s plans for “national preference.”
Mr.
Bardella’s immediate plans to get tough on crime are more likely to find quick
and smooth implementation, experts say. In the first weeks of office, he has
promised to pass laws setting minimum sentences for repeat offenders and to cut
state subsidies to families of young criminals caught reoffending.
“I think
they will be able to do that to satisfy their electorate,” said Mr. Lefebvre,
the political science professor.
To return
money to French wallets, Mr. Bardella’s main promise has been to greatly slash
the country’s sales tax on energy. When pushed on how he will pay for that
measure — estimated at 17 billion euros (about $18.2 billion) by the Ministry
of Finance — Mr. Bardella has offered a number of possibilities, including
cutting France’s payments to the European Union by €2 billion.
There, he is
again likely to face conflict with Mr. Macron, a forceful proponent of the
European Union, Mr. Lefebvre predicted.
But Mr.
Bardella might also face a technical challenge. In the short term, should a
French government simply refuse to send that payment, it would probably face
immediate sanction and a commensurate reduction in transfers from the European
Union — many of which go to French farmers, who are biggest beneficiaries of
farm subsidies, said Eulalia Rubio, senior research fellow in European economic
affairs at the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris.
The
negotiations for the next European Union multiannual budget are set to begin
next year. If the French government insists on receiving a rebate in its
payments going forward, it is likely to get something, she said, though not as
much as two billion euros.
But the cost
to the European Union, to which France is the second-largest contributor, will
be great, Ms. Rubio, who is also an associate senior research fellow at the
Center for European Policy Studies, said.
“France has
always been the country with a vision of a bigger budget for the European
Union,” Ms. Rubio said. “You saw Macron asking for a doubling of E.U. spending.
So we can totally forget about the big budget for defense and totally forget
about more economic support to Ukraine.”
Catherine
Porter is an international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is
based in Paris. More about Catherine Porter
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