The coalition of left parties promises a large-scale increase in wages

The New Popular Front coalition of left-wing parties, which is participating in early French legislative elections, promised a “massive” wage increase this Thursday to revive the economy through consumption.

Socialist MP Boris Vallot, presenting the program of the New Popular Front together with Eric Coquerel of the France Insubmissa (LFI) party, at a meeting organized by the main employers’ organizations and all the main political blocs, insisted that the French left-wing coalition wants to break with the actions of the president’s government Emmanuel Macron.

According to Vallot, the current French leader has “failed”, and the evidence he presented was the fact that the government was “sanctioned by rating agencies”, which began to downgrade the public debt due to the high level of deficit (5.5% of gross debt). Domestic product in 2023), as well as by the European Commission, which on Wednesday opened an excessive deficit procedure against France, similar to what happened to other member states.

In contrast to Macron’s strategy, Boris Vallot said that if the left wins the legislative elections, its intention is to “put the state at the center of the economy”, which will be responsible for “running everything” across all sectors.

The goal is a “Keynesian reset,” a theory that argues that the government should intervene in the economy whenever needed, which would be based “on a massive restoration of wages,” Vallo said, before explaining to businessmen gathered in an exhibition hall at the center Paris that increased consumption will lead to an increase in the order book of its companies.

One of the central points of the program of the New Popular Front and one of the most criticized by employers is precisely the increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros net per month (now it is almost 1,400 euros) and the indexation of wages taking into account inflation. .

The Socialist MEP said they would offset the extra costs the measure would impose on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through state aid, and recalled that the left was proposing “social and environmental protectionism at Europe’s borders” to protect production from imports.

Eric Cockerel, who represents the most radical wing of the New Popular Front, also tried to calm the big concerns that employers have shown about his proposals, saying they were not considering the possibility of an “explosive deficit” as much of the increased spending would be financed for greater economic growth.

However, the LFI MP said they intend to “discuss” the 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) deficit limit rule set by the European Union (EU) Stability Pact, and although they rule out France leaving the Eurozone, it intends to renegotiate these agreements using force and the influence of Paris, one of the main economic engines of the European bloc.

“We have weight and we will have allies,” Coquerel said.

In this regard, he emphasized that the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, has forgotten the urgency of reducing the government deficit, putting it behind other priorities, such as the IRA program to massively help manufacturing and decarbonize the economy. .

Regarding the tax increases, which the left-wing coalition plans to partly offset by increasing public spending, Boris Vallo said that the decisive effort should not be made by companies, but by the richest, with the restoration of the so-called Wealth Tax (ISF), the rate of which could be 1-2 %.

The socialist argues that this measure will be to correct the current situation in which “the middle class pays taxes that multimillionaires do not pay.”

The French legislative elections will be held in two rounds, scheduled for June 30 and July 7, as stipulated by the French electoral system.

Polls show that in the first round of legislative elections, the National Union (National Rally, RN, in its French acronym, far right) will be the party with the most votes (a third of the votes), followed by the New Party. The Popular Front is behind by five points, and the president’s Revival party is below 20%.