French President Emmanuel
Macron pledged further tax cuts, reforms to the
welfare system and major public investments on Thursday as he unveiled his manifesto
less than a month from elections.
اضافة اعلان
The 44-year-old had delayed confirming his intention to seek a second term
till March 3 and has been at the heart of Western diplomatic efforts to halt
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at his first major campaign event in Paris, he announced a
programme aimed at deepening pro-business reforms started in 2017 to reduce
chronically high unemployment.
"We have to work more," Macron told some 300 journalists gathered
at a venue in a northern Paris suburb, in front of giant screens showing his
slogan "With You".
"We have two levers: full employment and reforming the pension
system," he said.
Macron acknowledged that he had been unable to push through the pension
overhaul as promised in 2017, but pledged to tackle it again and push back the
retirement age to 65 from 62.
He also proposed reforms to the benefits system that would require the
unemployed to undertake 15 to 20 hours of work or training per week.
Another politically risky change would see all social benefits -- for
unemployment, housing, or childcare -- centralised in a single system,
affecting up to 20 million French people.
Major new public investments in the health and education systems, as well as
in the military and new technologies, would total 50 billion euros ($56
billion) a year, he said.
- Question of
'legitimacy' -
Rivals across the political spectrum, who have struggled to make an impact
as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines, have accused Macron of
neglecting the election campaign until now.
He has taken a leading role in Western diplomatic efforts to stop the war in
Ukraine, holding 20 hours of talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the
last five weeks.
"The president wants to be re-elected without ever really having been a
candidate, without a campaign, without a debate, without a competition of
ideas," the head of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, said on Tuesday.
"If there isn't a campaign, then there will be questions about the
legitimacy of the winner," Larcher, from the opposition Republicans party,
told Le Figaro newspaper.
In the most recent voter surveys he has gained five to six points over the
last month and could be on course to win the first round of the election on
April 10 with a score of about 30 percent.
Veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen is running in second place, on around
18 percent, a poll of polls by the Politico website suggests.
She is trailed by three candidates at around 11-12 percent -- right-wing
challenger Valerie Pecresse, far-right former TV pundit Eric Zemmour and
hard-left campaigner Jean-Luc Melenchon, who appears to be gaining momentum.
The top two candidates in the first round will progress to a run-off vote on
April 24. Polls suggest Macron will triumph by a large margin irrespective of his
rival.
Behind the scenes, the president is reported to be urging ministers and
campaign workers to guard against premature optimism -- to limited effect.
"Macron is winning by default. It's the others who are useless,"
one senior supporter told AFP this week, likening the incumbent's opponents to
"dwarves".
The head of state remains a highly divisive figure, dubbed the
"president of the rich" by left-wing critics and criticised for his
at-times abrasive personality.
He faced violent anti-government demonstrations in 2018 by so-called Yellow
Vest protesters.
One wildcard in the election outcome could be voter turnout, with a survey
by the Odoxa polling group, published by Le Figaro on Wednesday, suggesting one
in four people might abstain in the first round of the election, the
second-highest rate since 1965.
Read More Region & World
.jpg)
.jpg)
