Overview
- Several senior figures have turned program sketches into concrete proposals through books and media tours, with Sarah Knafo’s Le Casse du siècle proposing about €130 billion in cuts including a three‑year limit on RSA and 800,000 public‑sector cuts, and François Hollande publishing Unir with a plan to raise the standard VAT rate to 24% to finance lower social contributions and pension changes.
- Bruno Retailleau published the texts of a two‑part ‘pacte constitutionnel’ that would expand the use of referendums, seek to override some rulings of the Constitutional Council and enshrine a new ‘charter of the republican order’ as part of a wider institutional overhaul.
- France’s main farm union, the FNSEA, has pressed the government for a large, immediate aid package after severe summer heatwaves damaged crops and livestock, and Matignon has delayed its aid announcement to allow further financial arbitrage and damage assessment.
- The right remains divided over how to unify for 2027: LR figures including Laurent Wauquiez push for a formal inventory of ‘macronism’ and a primary, Retailleau says he will not simply step aside, and Éric Zemmour continues event‑based mobilization with an appearance planned at the Foire de Châlons‑en‑Champagne.
- These concurrent moves shift the campaign from positioning to policy trade‑offs that will reshape debate on deficit repair, welfare and constitutional checks, with direct effects on farmers facing short‑term losses, workers and pensioners who would feel fiscal and benefit changes, and party choices before formal nominations.