New Popular Front. Faced with the rout of Macronism and the possibility of the far right in power, the new Popular Front continues to impose itself as the only alternative for the people. This Tuesday, June 25, 300 economists signed a column in support of the program of the new Popular Front, published in Le Nouvel Obs. “ Their program indicates a clear economic policy direction: take the path to shared and sustainable prosperity through the strengthening of social policy and public and private investment. » explain their first lines.
Far from the attacks from the right and the fake news relayed by editorialists on stage, the program of the new Popular Front is the only one to propose an ambitious change of course, the financing of which has been carefully thought out and detailed. This costing of the program was presented at a press conference, and is available in writing on their website. La France insoumise also presented a detox document to respond to the main preconceived ideas – and above all, false ideas – disseminated in the media.
After the support of the Nobel Prize winner Esther Duflo, the economists Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty, these 300 new supporters from the world of economics are new proof, if any were needed, of the coherence of the project of the new Popular Front, in the face of the inconsistency of its competitors. Insubordination relays their platform in its columns.
Tribune – “The economic orientations of the New Popular Front respond to the challenges of our time”
The program of the New Popular Front indicates a clear economic policy direction: take the path to shared and sustainable prosperity through the strengthening of social policy and public and private investment. Restoring our country to long-term prospects means raising new revenue to restore finances and rebuild public services. Tax justice is therefore at the heart of this project, as an essential lever to guarantee quality education, an efficient health system and productive development that respects ecological balances.
Since 2017, the government has been betting that reducing taxes and levies on the richest and businesses would increase the employment rate, which would restore growth and finance public spending. This policy has failed. The public deficit is one of the largest in Europe, the debt is significant and hourly labor productivity is in sharp decline. This is the result of a strategic error consisting of focusing on lower costs and not on the quality of French production.
The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, proposes that these legislative elections continue on the same path. This is also true for the National Rally, whose main economic break consists of institutionalizing xenophobia by discriminating against non-French people in terms of social benefits. This is not only a moral abjection, but a budgetary aberration since the “savings” thus gained would be far from making up for the considerable indirect economic effects that this would generate, particularly in terms of public health.
The program of the New Popular Front takes the opposite view of these projects. By canceling pension and unemployment insurance reforms, he puts an end to a series of social regressions, which is essential to rebuild confidence. Beyond that, moving upmarket in the global economy requires developing skills, strengthening public services, modernizing infrastructure, supporting the most fragile companies to absorb wage increases, but also restoring dialogue social by restoring their place to the unions and rediscovering an ambitious policy in terms of innovation and research.
Unlike the National Rally and the presidential party, the funding envisaged is detailed and articulated coherently with the major issues of the moment. They are mainly based on tax measures concentrated on very high incomes and very high assets, which will contribute to reducing inequalities, on a progressive conditionality of exemptions to the bifurcation trajectory of companies as well as on ecological, fiscal and social protectionism. .
L’exit tax which makes individuals relocating their main residence liable in order to avoid tax, helps counter the effects of avoidance. At the same time, the desire to create a public banking center around the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and the Public Investment Bank would make it possible to reduce the dependence of economic policy on financial markets while providing ecological planning with a powerful lever. ‘action.
We are economists representing different sensibilities and schools of thought, whose work is based on varied methods and assumptions. Our support for the economic project carried by the New Popular Front does not amount to a blank check. In this historic moment, we find ourselves on the essential, namely the refusal of the National Rally and its authoritarian, racist, xenophobic and ecologically insane project. We also join in rejecting deeply unjust programs that put our country on a long-term trajectory of impoverishment. In the United States or Spain, the choice is made to generate revenue to prepare for the future, while Italy or Argentina have taken the authoritarian path of economic and social downgrading.
We believe that the orientations proposed by the New Popular Front best respond to the issues of the moment and the challenges of our time that we have just mentioned. We call on everyone who reads this text to put forward and enrich these arguments in connection with social movements. From the fear surrounding the next electoral events can arise the ambition for a new era of justice, freedom and prosperity.
At the initiative of :
Eric BerrUniversity of Bordeaux
Julia CageSciences-Po Paris
Lucas ChancelSciences-Po Paris et Paris School of Economics
Anne-Laure DelatteCNRS and University of Paris-Dauphine
Cedric DurandUniversity of Geneva
Elvire GuillaudUniversity of Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Elise HuilleryUniversity of Paris-Dauphine
Pierre Khalfa, Copernicus Foundation
Camille LandaisLondon School of Economics
Eloi LaurentSciences-Po Paris
Thomas PikettyEHESS et Paris School of Economics
Emmanuel SaezUniversity of California, Berkeley
Michael ZemmourLumière Lyon-2 University
Gabriel ZucmanENS et Paris School of Economics.
All the signatories can be found here.
For further : The new Popular Front presented its program of rupture
