Marine Le Pen - Wikipedia
Opposed to free trade and autarky, she advocates protectionism as a median way. In her view, if one considers the economy to be a raging river, then free trade is like allowing the torrent to rush along unchecked; autarky equates to the erection of a dam whereas protectionism is to install a sluice gate. "Protectionism is not autarky! ... Our position is not extreme – as our opponents would have it believed – but one which favours the middle way".
[40]
In 2010, she vigorously criticized the pension plan drawn up by Nicolas Sarkozy and his liberal-conservative government.
[215][216]
She paid tribute to the economist
Maurice Allais, who died on 9 October 2010.
[217] A French laureate of the
Nobel Prize in Economics (1988), Allais had expressed concerns about the 1992
Maastricht Treaty, the single European currency, free trade and
globalization and the 2004
European Constitution.
[218][219]....
She has expressed
support for the French public utilities, the civil servants, and the general public interest.
[221][222] She thus opposes the programmed
privatization of the
French Post Office (
La Poste) : in her view, "the privatization, with the aim of only making profitable, will result in the removal of post offices in the rural areas where the relinquishment of the state is already high". In October 2009, she claimed that three post offices had already disappeared each day in France since 1 January 2009.
[223][224] She said that the
liberalization of the French public utilities had been ratified by the former Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin during the
Barcelona summit on 15 and 16 March 2002.
[225][226] She had also warned that the UMP government planned a "progressive privatization of the French
Social Security system from 2011" – a condition imposed by the
financial markets.
[227]
During a press conference in June 2011, she advocated to reintroduce the
Havana Charter and implement an "International Trade Organization" (in place of
World Trade Organization), in order to reorganize the world trade exchanges.
[228] Signed by 53 countries and rejected by the US in 1951, this
Charter was a trade agreement that would have established an international currency known as the bancor.
[229] She claimed that the "Havana Charters's proposals perfectly fit into her economic philosophy"
[228] and that "its first article conciliates international trade and employment".
[230]
During her speech at the
National Press Club in
Washington, D.C. in November 2011, she proposed "three essential solutions to stop the current world systemic crisis and turn the world towards a greater justice and greater prosperity":
reintroduction of a "polymetallic standard" in the International monetary systems as a world standard of reference and exchanges in order to establish a "free monetary system" and struggle against speculation; the ratification of the modernized Havana Charter by the 1948 signatory nations and incoming emerging countries, in order to
favour a "reasonable protectionism that encourages cooperation in trade among nations through the end of 'unbridled free trade'";
application of the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act, which legally separated investment banking and commercial banking, to "the banking system of each country".
[229][230] In her view, these solutions will be able to bring a global support for employment thanks to the integration of "full employment" appearing as one of the main targets of the Havana Charter and for industry thanks to the authorization of state aids appearing in the Charter's article 13.
[230]
In October 2011, she
advocated to implement a drastic regulation of the banking sector separating by law the
deposit banks from the
merchant banks. She claimed that
"the deposit banks should be rescued by a temporary and partial nationalization". In her view, "the
balance sheet of the banks should be the object of a transparency operation".
[231]
In October 2011, she suggested 7 measures to save €30 billion per year in order to preserve France's AAA
credit rating.
[232] The largest part of the measures are made up of avoiding fraud on welfare payments and avoidance of tax loopholes (together €18.5 bn), stopping non-useful local spending (€4bn) as well as stopping payments of France to the EU (€7bn).
A president of the
Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF),
Laurence Parisot regularly levels strong criticism at the FN's economic and social programme.
[233] She replied that "the FN is not the friend of the CAC 40 and is fighting the social regression brought about by the MEDEF and inflicted on the French people by the allies of the UMP and the PS".
[234] After Parisot's new criticism, she claims that
"the philosophy of the FN's economic project comes down to some words: construction of a strong, protective and strategist state, reasoned protections at the boundaries, support to the small and medium enterprises, and get back the monetary sovereignty, only able to assure France's recovery".
[235] She also replied that "Laurence Parisot, this is the exact opposite of her democratic and republican project, a project of hope which puts back man and nation in the center of politics".
[236] After the publication of Parisot's critical book relating to the FN economic project, she suggested a "direct and public debate" with the president of the MEDEF.
[237]
Agriculture and environment
In her view, "the
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013 will be unable to protect our farmers from speculators and savage global competition, or to compensate for the excesses of the multinationals of the food processing industry and large-scale distributors. The CAP after 2013 will remain wedged between the ultraliberal and internationalist market logic of the European Commission and a future ‘green’ CAP, in reality serving the neo-capitalists of ecological business".
[238]
During her first visit at the
Paris International Agricultural Show on 25 February 2011,
[239] Marine Le Pen denounced the CAP as an "unbearable bureaucracy" and advocated to replace it with a "French agricultural policy". She also claimed that "leaving the EU, we could allocate 15 billions of euros to our agriculture".
[240][241][242]
She claims that 'internationalist organisations' such as the EU,
FAO, United Nations and
G-20 are directly responsible for the
food crises throughout the world. She advocates France's food independence with regard to multinationals
[243] and "a realignment of the farm aid politics to the third countries in order to favour their food sovereignty in particular by the reintroduction of localized food crops".
[244]
She
advocates the implementation of the "autarky of big spaces" and an "economy in concentric circles". In her view, it is an "ecological heresy to consume products grown at 20,000 km away and recycle waste thousands km further". She claims that we should "produce to the closest", "distribute on the spot", "consume as a priority products of its region" and then "in the nearby region" if not produced on the spot. She seeks to implement "contracts of cooperation" if necessary goods like coffee are not produced in Europe.
[245]
Energy and transport
Marine Le Pen regularly denounces sharp rises in energy prices[246][247] (gas,[248] gasoline,[249][250][251] electricity[252]) which has "harmful consequences on the purchasing power of the working and middle-class families".[249][250][251] In her view, this rise mainly stems from the European liberalization of the energy sector, jointly implemented by right wing and socialist governments since 1996.[246][248][252]
She advocates an immediate reduction of 20% of the domestic tax on oil products (TIPP), a surcharge of fantastic profits of the largest gas and oil companies and a struggle against international speculation on basic products such as food and energy.[246][247][249][250][251] She considers that "a strong state has authority to be the guarantor of public utilities, being the exclusive owner of the strategic companies of public utility and the regulator of tariffs".[248]
After a fatal event occurred on 12 September 2011 in the Centraco nuclear installation located on the Marcoule Nuclear Site, she claimed that "this accident illustrated the dangerousness of this energy and the necessity to consider a progressive and well-thought-out exit from nuclear power". In her view, "the State must secure the 58 French nuclear power plants and invest in researches to process nuclear waste". She advocates to "start the energy diversification of France, in particular with an ambitious programme of research into hydrogen".[253]
She favours accompanied combined transport (ferroutage) and public transport.[245]
Taxation
Marine Le Pen denounces the current corporate tax as "a crying injustice". She claims that the main groups of CAC 40 only pay 8% of corporate tax whereas the small offices/home offices, the small and medium enterprises, the craftsmen and the shopkeepers fully pay 33.33%. She advocates to implement a flexible corporate tax according to the use of profits: heavier when the profits benefit the shareholders and lighter when the profits turn towards profit sharing, salaries, employment and productive investment, enabling a relocation of activities.[254]
European Union and globalization
As MEP, she holds globalization,
intergovernmental organizations, 'euro-mondialism', free trade and ultra-liberalism responsible for the decline of agriculture
[255] and the
fishing industry,
[256] deindustrialization,
offshoring and
structural unemployment.
[257][258][259] Advocating a 'Europe of the nations' like a loose confederation of sovereign
nation states, she opposes
supranationalism,
[260] the euro and the
eurozone,
[261] the
technocracy of Brussels,
[262] and the
EU's federalism.
[263]
She opposes the establishment of a direct European tax, which is favoured by the leaders of the
European Parliament and
European Commission. She claims that an indirect European tax already exists, since France is a net annual contributor to the
EU budget by up to 7 billion euros annually.
[264]
She claims that
the Treaty of Lisbon is the 'gravedigger of the independence and identity of the European nations' and the 'executioner of public utilities in the name of a cult of profitability and free competition – both mortal enemies of public interest'.
[222][224] In her view, the Treaty of Lisbon is an 'exact copy' of the European Constitution which was twice rejected by referendum: first in
France by 54.67% of the voters on 29 May 2005
[265][266] and then in
Netherlands by 61.54% of the voters on 1 June 2005.
[267] She thus regretted that the Treaty of Lisbon had been imposed on the French people by parliament in order to avoid another referendum.
[268][269] She also criticized its approval by the
Socialist Party.
[224] She denounces the Treaty's amending implemented by the EU leaders, notably Germany.
[270] In her view, the revision is aimed at "solving the euro" and "forever eliminating the budgetary sovereignty of the states to institute a kind of supranational European monetary fund".
[271]
Opposed to the
accession of Turkey to the European Union, she prefers the option of a "privileged partnership".
[272] Marine Le Pen opposes accession of Ukraine to the European Union, while supporting its association status.
[273] She is currently campaigning for a referendum on France leaving the EU.
[274]
Euro and eurozone
She is a strong opponent of the Euro and advocates France to leave the common currency.
She claims that the implementation of the Euro entailed a rise in
prices and its abandonment would lead to an increase in purchasing power.
[275] Quoting economic data from
Eurostat (annual average growth, unemployment, GDP gap), she notes that "the European countries which did not enter the euro display higher performances than countries in the eurozone for ten years".
[275] Interviewed in October 2011 by
Adam Boulton on
Sky News, she cited the UK's relative stability as an example of how France's economy need not suffer from pulling out of the euro. She noticed that "United Kingdom is not in the eurozone and does not have the least desire to be in it. UK does not tolerate this kind of taking away of its freedom".
[73]
In order to recover monetary sovereignty, she advocates that France should gradually leave the euro with a new conversion rate fixed to 1 euro = 1
franc. In her view, France should jointly negotiate a "grouped departure" from the euro and eurozone. This departure should take effect on the same day and include the other European countries (such as Ireland, Greece,
Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Belgium) which are suffering because of the single currency.
[276] Since the present government and the whole political class had strongly criticized her economic plan, she submitted a new document detailing how a successful departure of United Kingdom, Spain and Italy from the
European Monetary System (EMS) had been achieved from September 1992.
[277]
She explains the tenet and the mechanism of a competitive
devaluation (
J curve),
[277] which "will quickly have a positive effect on employment and purchasing power, stimulating industry,
international trade and enabling to fight offshorings".
[275] Quoting extracts from a book by the French economist Alain Cotta, she claims that a devaluation of the franc will not bring about inflation.
[275]
She anticipates a "total economic federalization of the eurozone". In her view, "this option which is favoured by the European technostructure, presents all the features of a totalitarian utopia". She claims that a "monstrous superstructure, already named 'European ministry of Finance', would decide in the opaqueness our policies of education, health and security". In her view, "the federal headlong rush also supposes a massive financial transfer of our countries towards
Southern and Eastern Europe, at the detriment of the most vulnerable French people".
[278]
About successive
bailout plans, she laments that "the contributing countries, France in particular, throw in the hole of the European debt billions which dig their deficits and come them closer to the eye of the cyclone".
[278] In her view, "the hundred of billions paid do not product any result, will not settle any problem, will not rescue a eurozone already in bankruptcy and push France into the chasm of excessive debt, whereas the French debt has already exploded under the mandate of Nicolas Sarkozy". Fearing that "France falls into the excessive debt", she refuses "any new assistance plan in order to bail out one after the other the countries suffering because of the single currency".
[279]
She asserts that despite the expansion of the abilities of the
European Financial Stability Facility, reassuring announcements and new austerity plans, Greece is sinking, social devastation is intensifying and the anger of the people bursts out.
[278] In July 2011, she claimed that "after the seventeen billions of the first Greek bailout plan, the fifteen billions of the new assistance plan to Greece will make heavy our own already huge debt".
[280][281] During her press conference organized on 6 September 2011 at the
Pont de la Concorde in front of the
National Assembly, she vigorously denounced the favourable voting by Socialist and UMP-
NC MPs of second Greek bailout plan.
