Marine Le Pen’s alternative budget aims for €140 billion in savings over five years

2026-10-07

Marine Le Pen presents her plan as a “recovery cure” and is targeting €140 billion in net savings over five years, combining spending cuts with tax increases.
Gabriel Attal’s team considers the projected savings from fighting fraud and reducing measures aimed at foreign nationals to be overestimated.
Attal’s team estimates that lowering the retirement age to 60 would cost €30 billion to €50 billion, compared with €9.5 billion in Marine Le Pen’s calculation.
According to Attal’s team, taxing share buybacks would raise far less than the projected €11 billion because of changes in taxpayers’ behavior.
L’Opinion’s editorial questions whether spending can be cut while sparing the majority of French people.
The RN is banking on growth of 1.8% in 2028 despite the cuts, an assumption economists consider difficult to sustain.