France: Le Pen has succeeded in softening her image - Rabobank

In view of the analysts at Rabobank, the French candidate for the far-right Front National Le Pen has succeeded in softening her image, making it to the second round and the party remains firmly anti-immigration and anti-Islam.

Key Quotes

“She has promised to withdraw France from the Eurozone, introduce a national currency (thereby effectively defaulting on French’ government debt), leave Schengen and reintroduce border controls. Eventually she wants to hold a referendum to leave the EU altogether. Her policies are directly protectionist, for instance by no longer applying the EU Posted Workers Directive. She also plans to decrease social security contributions through a lower fiscal and administrative complexity and undo any previous labour market reforms. She wants to decrease the retirement age to 60, lower taxes for small and medium-sized firms and put a tax on hiring foreigners.”

“Achieving this agenda will not be easy as she is very unlikely to achieve a majority in June’s parliamentary elections. Moreover, constitutional hurdles exist for a referendum on EU membership. Nonetheless, financial markets will be very worried if she wins, leading to at the very least to a jump in the spread on French government bonds.”