The leader of the British far-right party Reform UK, Nigel Farage, who supported Marine Le Pen in 2017, now believes that the implementation of the RN’s economic programme would be a “disaster”.
The leader of the British far-right party Reform UK, Nigel Farage, has strongly criticised Marine Le Pen’s economic programme. For Nigel Farage, the arrival of the National Rally in power at the end of the second round of the legislative elections this Sunday would be “even worse for the economy than the current lot”.
The RN came out on top in the first round of the legislative elections and could obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly at the end of the second round on Sunday. The implementation of its economic program would be a “disaster”, Nigel Farage told the British media UnHerd, in an article published this Monday, July 1.
Defender of a more liberal economic line
The RN did not provide detailed figures for its programme for the legislative elections, only providing figures for some of its measures such as the reduction of VAT from 20% to 5.5% on “energy, fuel, heating oil, gas and electricity”. It would represent 7 billion euros “by the end of the year” and “a little over 12 billion over an entire year”. The Ministry of the Economy, for its part, estimated it at 16.8 billion euros.
For its part, Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration party defends a liberal line from an economic point of view, and promised, during its campaign for the British legislative elections which are being held this Thursday, tax cuts and regulatory simplifications for businesses.
Support nevertheless strong in 2017
Nigel Farage, a former MEP who played a major role in the Brexit campaign in 2016, had nevertheless supported Marine Le Pen’s candidacy during the 2017 presidential election.
In an op-ed published in The Telegraph, he had praised a “sincere Eurosceptic”, even if he acknowledged that he had thought that “the roots of the party were deeply anchored in (the regime of, Editor’s note:) Vichy” and that “anti-Semitism was written in its DNA.”
“I have no doubt that a Le Pen victory would give the EU an even bigger headache than the UK’s vote for Brexit,” said Nigel Farage, adding that it would “put France first and take her country out of the euro, which has damaged its competitiveness.”
Marine Le Pen promised, until 2017, a referendum on France’s exit from the EU and wanted France to abandon the euro. During the campaign for the European elections, Jordan Bardella, head of the National Rally (RN) list, defended himself against this. “No ‘Frexit’, neither public nor hidden,” he affirmed at the end of February, saying he was not “against Europe” but “against the European Union” and promising a sorting out of community policies.
