"We're entering the USSR": CGT seeks a 10% rise of the SMIC, but Marine Le Pen calls it "changing regimes"

No question of increasing the minimum wage by 150 euros per month according to Marine Le Pen. During a visit to the Euronaval show in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), the RN candidate for the presidential election declared to the press that "we are in a situation too fragile to impose (on businesses) in some way, in an authoritarian manner, an increase in the minimum wage of 10%" as requested in particular by the CGT. They "cannot cope with it and, in reality, we are going to see a wave of layoffs", she warned, saying, on the other hand, that she was in favor of an incentive for companies which would increase salaries by 10% "by exempting them from the related charges".

“We cannot do this in a coercive way because otherwise we change the regime,” explained Marine Le Pen. If we force companies to increase wages, “we enter the USSR (and) I am not absolutely convinced of the effectiveness of the USSR”. However, she considered that it is possible to “explain” to employers “that it is absolutely necessary to do so”, that it is important to “pay attention to their employees”.

Édouard Philippe is also against an increase in the minimum wage Horizons candidate Édouard Philippe is also opposed to an increase in the minimum wage. “The solution seems to me to go much more through better organization of work and additional working time than through decisions taken by the State which consist of ultimately imposing the payment of money that we do not have or that we do not have enough.” According to him, the discussions must "result from a discussion between the social partners much more than decisions from the State".

For LR candidate Bruno Retailleau, the increase in the minimum wage is also “a bad idea”. “There is no point in precipitating business bankruptcies,” he said, advocating instead to bury the 35-hour week by encouraging people to work 30 minutes more per day in the form of tax-exempt overtime hours not subject to social security contributions.

Machine-translated from French