France's Le Pen will "leave euro, slash immigration, tax imports and tap central bank"
in order to balance the budget.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-france-lepen-economytre80b23x-20120112,0,4390824.story
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Thursday she would balance France's books if elected president by leaving the euro, slashing immigration, taxing imports and tapping the central bank for cheap loans instead of the debt markets. The National Front leader, who ranks third in opinion polls, spelt out the financial planning behind her campaign promises just over three months before the first round of the presidential contest on April 22.
Exploiting discontent over globalization and the debt crisis in Europe, Le Pen has sought to lure voters by detailing her plan to knock the country's bloated public deficit to zero by the end of 2017.
She plans to free up almost 200 billion euros primarily by pulling out of the euro and no longer contributing to financial bailout packages for the likes of Greece and other euro zone countries. She would also introduce a range of protectionist policies, including a 3 percent tax on imports, to finance a monthly wage rise of 200 euros for poorer workers.
Le Pen said almost 41 billion euros would be drummed up by reducing legal immigration from 200,000 people a year to 10,000. "We will drastically reduce costs ... because it (immigration) is used by big business to encourage low wages," she said.
The Socialist Party is first in the polls with Sarkozy's Conservative Party in second. Le Pen's National Front is in third. It will be interesting to see if the recent trend in Europe of left wing parties winning back governments that had been lost to the right will continue.
The first round in their presidential election is April 22. The top two go through to a runoff in May. Things look good for the Socialist Party in the first round, but Sarkozy and Le Pen are fighting hard to finish second and stay in the race. They are fighting for the conservative vote by doing the same thing that our republican candidates are doing - playing to the base.
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