For the moment, the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) policies boil down to a few "emergency measures" revealed to Le Parisien newspaper on Tuesday, June 18. The party's leader, Jordan Bardella, is expected to present his platform in greater detail early next week, in what is likely to resemble a policy statement usually given by the prime minister, a role Bardella hopes to be appointed following the parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7. The real policy statement, the one given by any new head of government in the Assemblée Nationale, Bardella says he will only deliver it if his party wins an absolute majority.

The 28-year-old candidate, who has never served in any government, doesn't want to end up in the same position as former prime ministers Elisabeth Borne or Gabriel Attal, i.e. at the mercy of the first vote of no confidence or of tough negotiations with greedy partners. If a few votes are missing, beyond the alliance already made with the ousted conservative party leader Eric Ciotti, he could try to form an alliance with the members of Ciotti's party who didn't support his decision, provided they make a firm commitment to vote for the budget. "We don't want to pass a budget using Article 49.3," which allows the government to pass a bill without a vote, insisted Renaud Labaye, Marine Le Pen's right-hand man at the Assemblée. "You're either in the majority, or you're in the opposition."

"I don't plan to be the president's collaborator," Bardella said on radio station Europe 1, calling for "the power to change policy in our country." However, "if there is a relative majority, the prime minister cannot act," he said. Current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal described his caution as a "refusal ti jump," while the party said it was a way of mobilizing its electorate.

Bardella's reservation toward exercising power follows several others voiced over the past week by RN party members, with the party's policy platform dubbed very costly by the Ministry of Finance. Many measures, notably on public services, will be subject to a "financial audit" at the end of which the RN, in 2025, could conclude that it does not have the resources to fix any problems. Bardella told Le Parisien that other, more symbolic measures historically on the RN's platform have been postponed until after 2027. "There's less and less program and more and more conditions," Attal mocked on Franceinfo radio.

Bardella's current platform focuses on three pillars: Purchasing power, insecurity and immigration, to which he would add a measure to combat medical deserts. But most of these proposed measures would run up against the European Union (EU) and possibly the Constitution.

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