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    HomeBusinessFactbox-Macron wants the French to work longer, shake up welfare state

    Factbox-Macron wants the French to work longer, shake up welfare state

    By Michel Rose

    PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who was elected in 2017 on a promise to be neither of the left nor the right, is projected in voter surveys to win a second term against a resurgent far-right Marine Le Pen, although with a smaller margin of victory.

    Here are his main policy proposals:

    ECONOMY

    * Raise the minimum pension age to 65 from 62 and increase the minimum monthly pension to 1,100 euros ($1,187).

    * Require 15-20 hours a week of training for welfare benefit recipients

    * Cut taxes by 15 billion euros with half for households and the rest for businesses.

    * Further loosen labour market rules and reform unemployment insurance to make payments vary according to the state of the economy

    * Raise the threshold over which inheritance tax kicks in from 100,000 euros to 150,000 euros

    EUROPE, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

    * Make the European Union more self-sufficient in defence, agriculture, energy and strategic economic sectors

    * Strengthen the capacities of national European armies, increase co-ordination between them and create a "common military doctrine"

    * Create European industrial champions including a "European metaverse"

    * Reform the European electricity market

    IMMIGRATION & SECURITY

    * Make long-term residence permits conditional on a French exam and employment

    * Expel foreigners deemed to be trouble-makers

    * Create a rapid-action force to restore order in troubled "banlieues", economically deprived suburbs.

    * Broader scope for on-the-spot-fines for petty crime

    ENERGY

    * Build six new nuclear reactors and launch studies for another eight, increase solar energy capacity tenfold, build 50 wind farms at sea by mid-century

    * Take control of certain energy companies, suggesting that the government would revive stalled plans to buy out minority shareholders in nuclear utility EDF

    * Renovate 700,000 homes a year

    * Leasing scheme to make electric vehicles more accessible

    * Put the next prime minister directly in charge of "green planning" to make France the "first great nation". Stop using oil, coal and gas

    ($1 = 0.9264 euros)

    (Compiled by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough and Ros Russell)

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