Macron vows tax, benefits shake-up in poll pledges

PARIS－French President Emmanuel Macron pledged further tax cuts, reforms to the welfare system and major public investments on Thursday as he unveiled his manifesto less than a month from elections.

The 44-year-old had delayed confirming his intention to seek a second term until March 3.

Speaking for four hours at his first major campaign event, he announced a program aimed at deepening pro-business reforms started in 2017 to reduce chronically high unemployment.

"We have to work more," Macron told some 300 journalists gathered at a venue in a northern Paris suburb, in front of giant screens showing his slogan "With You".

"We have two levers: full employment and reforming the pension system," he said.

Macron acknowledged that he had been unable to push through the pension overhaul as promised in 2017, but pledged to tackle it again and push back the retirement age to 65 from 62.

He also proposed reforms to the benefits system that would require the unemployed to undertake 15 to 20 hours of work or training a week.

Another politically risky change would see all social benefits－for unemployment, housing, or childcare－centralized in a single system, affecting up to 20 million people.

Major new public investments in the military, the energy sector and new technologies were also required in order to create "an independent France in a strong Europe", he said.

The program "has been informed by the crises we've experienced in the last five years which we weren't expecting", he said, referring to so-called "Yellow Vest" anti-government protests from 2018, the COVID-19 crisis, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In the most recent voter surveys Macron has gained five to six points over the last month and could be on course to win the first round of the election on April 10 with a score of about 30 percent.

Veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen is running in second place, on around 18 percent, a poll of polls by the Politico website suggests.

She is trailed by three candidates at around 11-12 percent－right-wing challenger Valerie Pecresse, far-right former TV pundit Eric Zemmour and hard-left campaigner Jean-Luc Melenchon, who appears to be gaining momentum.

The top two candidates in the first round will progress to a runoff vote on April 24.

"I believe on the contrary that faced with fears and a return of the tragic in our history ... we need to reply with clear-sighted ambition, a desire to act," Macron said.

Agencies via Xinhua