Overview
- Marine Le Pen responds by accusing Philippe Aghion of contempt and defends a program she says would deliver tens of billions in savings.
- The Rassemblement National’s counter-budget claims about €36 billion in additional savings through €50 billion in spending cuts and €14 billion in lower receipts.
- Aghion, awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics, told RFI the plan is unrealistic and its authors are incompetent, saying he would not entrust them with governing France.
- He disputes roughly €12 billion in savings from immigration and “préférence nationale,” calling the measures unconstitutional, overestimated and not applicable in 2026.
- He rejects a €5 billion anti-fraud yield as fantastical and says a €8.7 billion cut to France’s EU contribution would breach treaties and harm beneficiaries such as farmers, while a Senate LR report caps potential agency-support savings near €500–540 million versus the RN’s €7 billion claim.