It was she who said it, in an interview with Point last August: Valérie Pécresse, nominated by Les Républicains as candidate for the presidential election, is defined as a mixture of Angela Merkel – for two thirds – and Margaret Thatcher, for the remaining third. Its economic program, assumed to be “liberal”, reflects this. Review of the main measures.
► Restore public finances
Valérie Pécresse aims to cut 200,000 civil servant positions in five years. In his time, François Fillon had gone up to 500,000. Of course, nurses, teachers and police officers would not be concerned: the security forces, national education and health would see their numbers increase by 50,000 positions. But Valérie Pécresse intends to reduce “The administering administration of the State and local communities”, without further details on the positions possibly concerned.
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The candidate Les Républicains wishes to restore the balance of public finances by leading from May 2022 a “Truth operation” on the balance sheet of “Whatever the cost” by Emmanuel Macron. Its objective is to bring the debt, which is now close to 120% of GDP, to around 100% in ten years.
To this end, Valérie Pécresse intends to achieve savings of 45 billion euros per year at the end of the mandate. “Thanks to the reforms of pensions, unemployment and de-bureaucratization, new policies to fight against tax and social fraud and the systematic review of subsidies with regard to their effectiveness”.
Small deviation from budgetary orthodoxy: the candidate intends to plead at European level for the relaxation of the rule of 3% of public deficit, ” leaving (calculation, Editor’s note) investments related to defense and energy transition ”.
► Make a living from work
“Work must pay more than assistantship and the underground economy”, affirms the candidate’s program. In this spirit, Valérie Pécresse proposes that net wages below 2.2 times the minimum wage increase by 10%, excluding inflation, within five years, by having the employer assume the old age contributions paid by employees. The state will compensate companies for two-thirds of their costs and negotiate the remaining third with them through an annual wage and social conference.
→ MAINTENANCE. Bruno Jeanbart: “It’s a bet for LR to choose Valérie Pécresse”
On the labor chapter still, candidate LR could not fail to address the issue of 35 hours. Its aim is to “Liberalize working time” : it will be negotiated by company or by branch and companies that wish will be able to stay every 35 hours. In the absence of agreement, “The working time will be 39 paid hours 39”. Clarification: those who work today 39 hours with overtime will see their wages maintained.
► Reform of pensions and unemployment insurance
The measure does not promise to be the most popular: Valérie Pécresse proposes to push back the legal retirement age to 65 for everyone, without specifying the deadline. In compensation, the candidate promises that in 2030, no pension will be less than the net minimum wage, for anyone who has contributed all his life.
On the unemployment insurance side, it promises an additional turn of the screw compared to the reform implemented by the current executive: the degression of unemployment benefit will be triggered after six months for employees under 50 years previously paid more than twice the minimum wage, while the current reform only targets the highest salaries.
► Encourage donations
In tax matters, Valérie Pécresse proposes to set up a “Heritage transmission shock” by creating a tax-exempt donation system every six years, up to 100,000 € from grandparents and parents (against every fifteen years today) but also for uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters , at lower thresholds.
→ READ. Donations, a controversial stimulus tool
She also wants to double the tax credit for home help for the care of children and dependent elderly people.
On the other hand, employers’ organizations will have to wait before seeing what remains of production taxes removed. If the LR candidate intends to immediately get rid of the social solidarity contribution of companies (C3S), it will be considered to tackle other production taxes “When the reforms have effectively made it possible to reduce public expenditure”.
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