France’s Le Pen promises real boost to salaries, not one-off grants

PARIS (Reuters) – French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said in an election debate with President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday that if she is elected president on Sunday, her government will give a permanent boost to salaries, not one-off grants.

“In real life, when you ask a bank for a loan, they ask about your salary, they laugh at your grants. I propose to increase wages,” Le Pen said. “All you do is hand out cheques … my priority is to give French people their money back,” she said.

In order to offset inflation, the French government last year decided to give low-income households an “inflation premium” of 100 euros to help mitigate the impact of rising energy prices and the higher cost of living.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Richard Lough)