France: What must the presidential candidates’ economic and social programmes address?

The policy programmes of France’s presidential candidates should contain a strategy to respond to the country’s most acute structural economic problems 1 . These include, in particular: Low employment rate, employability and skills (among young people and adults). These issues, which are related, lead to high inequality (before redistribution), low production and income, insufficient corporate modernisation and public finance problems. What is the strategy to raise youth and adult skills? How should the education and vocational training system be reformed? Answers to the challenges that the energy transition will pose: destruction of capital and jobs; need to sharply increase investment; higher energy prices and, as a result, inequality; need to produce the necessary equipment locally. How to finance the additional investment? How to correct the inequality? How to transform the nature of jobs? How to attract the production of equipment for the energy transition to France? The trajectory of public finances and how to ensure public debt sustainability. At t he start of the five-year presidential term in 2022 , the public debt and the fiscal deficit are very high , and yet there is a desire to increase public spending (healthcare, technological dependency, innovation, reindustrialisation, energy transition, etc.) and cut taxes (production taxes, social contributions, etc.). How can this be done? Should pensions be reformed? Can government become more efficient? How should the European fiscal rules be amended? Inequalities and purchasing power: should incomes at the bottom be lifted by increas ing the minimum wage or public income transfers? How to correct the wealth inequality that results from the very sharp rise in financial and real estate asset prices on the back of very low interest rates? How to combat unjustified rents? How to get employees to share in the growing wealth of companies? 1 For a detailed presentation , please see The major economic issues for debate in the French presidential campaign .