Marine Le Pen’s big-spending, populist plans to help poorer and working class voters with tax cuts and promises to lower the retirement age may have been easy to tout when her French far-right party was in opposition.
Now the Rassemblement National is waking up to the reality that those economic pledges may be difficult to enact if it takes power following snap elections — and could turn into a “Liz Truss-style” liability on the campaign trail.
Rivals from president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party have already pounced, warning that a debt crisis like the UK gilt market turmoil in 2022 could ensue if they end up in a power-sharing situation with the RN, similar to the fallout from the former British leader’s plans for billions of unfunded tax cuts.