French presidential hopefuls clash over economy and EU in first debate

Thursday's debate, organised in Paris by France's largest employers' federation, the Mouvement des entreprises de France (Movement of the Enterprises of France, Medef), brought together seven leading candidates who have announced they will run in the election next April.

The candidates, ranging from the hard left to the far right, agreed that France's economy was in trouble but differed sharply over how to tackle it.

France's public debt stood at €3.536 trillion at the end of March 2026, or 117.5 percent of GDP, while its deficit in 2025 was about €152.5 billion, or 5.1 percent of GDP, national statistics office data showed.

Economic divides

Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said her party would present a €125 billion cost-cutting plan, claiming there was a "general consensus on the seriousness of the situation".

In sharp contrast, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), called on business leaders to raise wages to prevent France from "falling into recession".

He also attacked what he called tax giveaways under Macron, which he said were equivalent to the country's entire deficit.

Centre-right candidate Edouard Philippe, a former prime minister under Macron, accused Mélenchon of seeking to "burn" France's debt and taking measures that would "result in France being shut out of the banking system".

Deficit to deadlock: why France is borrowing €310bn without a budget

Divisions over Europe

The candidates were also sharply divided over the EU and how France should deal with its European partners.

France would "disobey" EU rules on trade and economic policy if he were elected, Mélenchon said, calling for the treaties underpinning the bloc to be rewritten. He said France should reject anything from Europe that conflicted with French interests.

Le Pen, who no longer backs France leaving the EU but remains Eurosceptic, said she would cut France's contribution to Brussels by €5 billion. She also called for thousands of European rules to be scrapped, arguing that France often went beyond EU requirements.

In July, a French appeals court upheld her conviction for embezzling funds from the European Parliament and sentenced her to house arrest. But pending a further appeal, she is free to campaign.

Philippe argued instead for greater European cooperation to confront China and the United States. He backed an EU-wide capital markets union and called for European countries to "speak the language of power" to both countries.

He also argued that Germany, Italy and Spain were helping to compensate for France's weak industrial competitiveness.

Centre-left Raphaël Glucksmann, a former commentator turned MEP who declared his candidacy just last week, rejected the idea that France's main industrial problem was competition from neighbouring EU countries, saying businesses were instead concerned about China.

He called for France to take a stronger role in Brussels and criticised what he described as Le Pen's "anti-Europe ideology".

Centre-left Glucksmann enters French presidential race as left tries to unite

No clear winner

Other candidates taking part in the debate were Bruno Retailleau, leader of the rightwing Republicains (LR),  Marine Tondelier (EELV French Greens), and former centrist prime minister Gabriel Attal, now head of Macron's Renaissance party.

Glucksmann attacked Philippe and Attal over their positions on public debt.

"It is actually quite surprising to be lectured on debt by two of Emmanuel Macron's former prime ministers," he said.

No clear winner emerged from the debate, which ran more than an hour overtime.

The latest poll by Ifop-Fiducial projected that Melenchon could make the second round against Le Pen, who is far ahead in polls for the first round.

However, Le Pen could still be ruled out of the race if a final Court of Cassation ruling on misuse of EU funds, expected just ahead of the election, goes against her.

(with newswires)