Seven candidates vying for the Élysée in 2027 confronted one another in Paris on Thursday, exposing deep ideological fault lines on everything from retirement age to the role of government.
A symbolic starting gun
Le Figaro described the event as the symbolic launch of the 2027 presidential race. Organised by the French employers’ federation Medef, the debate brought together seven contenders for the republic’s highest office, each fielding questions from the heads of five major French companies.
The line-up included Marine Le Pen of the nationally oriented National Rally, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the far-left La France Insoumise, former prime minister Gabriel Attal representing the pro-presidential Renaissance party, former prime minister Édouard Philippe of the centre-right Horizons, MEP Raphaël Glucksmann of the centre-left Place Publique, former interior minister Bruno Retailleau of the Republicans, and Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Greens.
Divisions emerge from the opening minutes
The newspaper noted that disagreements surfaced almost immediately, with the most intransigent positions crystallising around pension reform. On reindustrialisation, the right argued for cutting costs, while the left called for a “revival of sectors”. A profound split also emerged on taxation.
Mélenchon declared his faith “in the state”, whereas Retailleau condemned a “greedy” and “bloated” public sector. Attal, for his part, opened by demanding that Mélenchon apologise for remarks made by his party’s MEP Manon Aubry about “harmful billionaires”.
Competing blueprints for the public purse
Candidates laid out sharply contrasting plans for restoring control over public finances. Promising to “drastically cut” state spending and to enshrine a “golden rule” on public debt in the constitution, Le Pen identified two sources of savings: the European Union and immigration.
Glucksmann urged a tax on the largest fortunes and called for increased industrial output to narrow the budget deficit.
Mélenchon proposed reducing corporate subsidies, while Attal emphasised “social spending” cuts as the route to bringing the deficit back below 3% by 2032. Speaking after Tondelier, who condemned the country’s “social fracture”, Retailleau argued that the French should work more, attacking the left and the 35-hour working week.
Pension battle lines redrawn
The debate then moved to pensions, where divisions were equally stark. Le Pen argued that those who began working before the age of 20 should be able to retire at 60. For most others, the legal retirement age would rise to 62, with a 42-year contribution requirement and incentives for those willing to work longer.
Attal and Philippe reiterated their desire to encourage longer working lives, with Attal stressing his ambition to introduce a “funded pension scheme”. Retailleau called for linking the retirement age to life expectancy through a “proportional equation.”
Tondelier, Mélenchon and Glucksmann all restated their opposition to the pension reforms enacted under President Emmanuel Macron — reforms Glucksmann branded “unjust” and Tondelier described as having been “passed unlawfully.”
The European Union came under repeated fire throughout the evening, emerging as a favoured target for candidates on both ends of the political spectrum.
