French election: Macron and Le Pen clash over energy policies

Far-right candidate promises to slash taxes on fuel in first move as president

Marine Le Pen is hoping to pull off a shock victory in the second round on April 24. AP

Marine Le Pen said on Friday that cutting taxes on energy would be her first act as French president as she seeks to tap into public anger about the soaring cost of living to defeat Emmanuel Macron in next week’s election.

Mr Macron’s camp, in turn, said the president’s far-right challenger would increase France’s reliance on foreign oil and gas imports by putting the brakes on renewable energy production at home.

It came with nine days to go until the second-round vote that will decide whether Mr Macron gets a second term, with polls showing the centrist president in a persistent but narrow lead.

The final round will turn in part on which way left-leaning voters cast their ballots, or whether they turn up at all, after the left’s main flag-bearer Jean-Luc Melenchon attracted 7.7 million votes but was eliminated in the first round.

Voters have consistently named the cost of living as their top concern in the campaign, beating the war in Ukraine, with Ms Le Pen typically seen as more in touch than an incumbent nicknamed the “president of the rich”.

Ms Le Pen exploited those concerns to finish strongly in the first-round campaign and qualify for the run-off vote, taking 23 per cent of the vote compared with 28 per cent for Mr Macron.

Her promise to cut tax on fuel and electricity from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent would be “my first measure” as president, she said in a radio interview on Friday. “I want to give the French their money.”

Mr Macron’s team touts his government’s decision to limit price increases for electricity to 4 per cent, in a move that angered state-owned provider EDF but was intended to save household consumers hundreds of euros this year.

In addition, incomes would suffer under Ms Le Pen because her moves to loosen ties with the European Union would damage the economy, the Macron campaign argued in a list of talking points sent out to supporters.

Mr Macron is also offering a €100 ($108) per month payment for electric car users in a move to promote renewable energy.

By contrast, Ms Le Pen – whose manifesto describes the proliferation of wind turbines in France as a scandal – would move the country back towards fossil fuels and leave it more reliant on imports, Mr Macron’s camp said.

“Exiting renewables today would be a complete aberration, we would be the only country in the world doing that,” the president said on Thursday.

Both candidates support modernising the French nuclear grid, which provides the majority of the country’s electricity.

But while Mr Macron wants to build 50 offshore wind farms by 2050, Ms Le Pen supports an immediate stop to building new wind turbines followed by their gradual dismantling.

Meanwhile, the two candidates took similar positions in criticising a €19.2 million ($20.8m) bonus paid by car manufacturer Stellantis to its chief executive Carlos Tavares.

“It’s shocking, it’s excessive,” said Mr Macron, who said he supported an EU-wide ceiling for executive pay.

“If not, society will explode at any moment,” he said, amid concerns that high prices will revive the Yellow Vest protest movement that plagued the first half of his presidency.

Ms Le Pen also described the pay-out to Mr Tavares as shocking but did not come out in favour of limits on corporate pay.