Twelve candidates have qualified to compete in the French presidential election. Only six are polling at more than few percentage points. I will summarize their policies here, plus those of Anne Hidalgo. The mayor of Paris has just 2 percent support in recent surveys, but her Socialist Party could still be a force in the legislative elections in June.

The comparison reveals strange bedfellows. The centrist Emmanuel Macron and center-right Valérie Pécresse see eye to eye on asylum and pension reform. Macron’s climate policies are closer to the Green party’s candidate, Yannick Jadot. Jadot and the far-right Marine Le Pen emphasize animal welfare. Le Pen and the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon agree on renationalizing motorways. Mélenchon and the far-right Éric Zemmour believe NATO is obsolete.

Emmanuel Macron

The incumbent has 26 to 28 percent support in surveys for the first voting round on April 10.

• €50 billion to build fifty offshore wind farms and six nuclear power reactors, double onshore wind power and increase solar energy output tenfold by 2050.
• €15 billion in tax cuts financed by administrative spending cuts.
• Achieve 100-percent French supply chains in electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines.
• Create 200 new gendarmerie brigades. (There are about 3,600.)
• Cut inheritance tax.
• Give all French a one-time, tax-free cheque of up to €6,000 to cope with inflation.
• Hire 8,500 magistrates and judicial staff.
• Integrate European armed forces.
• Raise subsidies for single parents.
• Raise teachers’ pay and give schools more autonomy.
• Raise the retirement age from 62 to 65. Raise the minimum pension to €1,100 per month. Merge France’s 42 public pension schemes into a single, points-based system.
• Simplify asylum procedures.

Marine Le Pen

The leader of the far-right National Rally has 17 to 21 percent support.

• Abolish inheritance tax for low and middle incomes.
• Ban the slaughter of conscious animals.
• Centralize French language and history in high-school curricula.
• Double subsidies for single parents.
• End family reunification as criterion for residence.
• Exempt workers under the age of 30 from income tax.
• Give native French priority in employment and social housing.
• Privatize public broadcasting and abolish the license fee.
• Process asylum applications abroad, not in France.
• Renationalize motorways to reduce tolls by 15 percent.
• Restore mandatory minimum prison sentences and abolish early release.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon

The leader of the far-left France Unbowed is consolidating left-wing support. He polled at 9 to 11 percent earlier this year, but is now at 14-15 percent.

• €200 billion in ecological and social investments.
• 100-percent tax on inheritances over €12 million.
• Ban factory farming.
• Ensure a minimum monthly after-tax income of €1,400.
• Guarantee jobs for all.
• Leave NATO.
• Legalize cannabis under a state monopoly.
• Liberalize immigration laws.
• Lower the pension age from 62 to 60.
• Phase out nuclear power.
• Raise tax on incomes over €4,000 per month.
• Reduce the working week to 32 hours in some jobs.
• Reinstate the wealth tax (abolished by Macron).
• Renationalize motorways, rail and utilities.

Valérie Pécresse

The leader of the center-right Republicans has 9 to 11 percent support.

• Condition residency on learning French.
• Cut 200,000 administrative jobs.
• Cut social aid for illegal immigrants.
• Hire 25,000 caregivers and cut red tape in hospitals.
• Introduce immigration quotas for countries and professions.
• Raise the retirement age from 62 to 65.
• Simplify asylum procedures.

Éric Zemmour

The leader of the new far-right party Reconquest has 9 to 11 percent support.

• Ban non-French baby names.
• Build 10,000 more prison cells.
• Close the approximately 540 mosques operated by Islamists.
• Cut €30 billion in business taxes.
• Deport recidivists with dual nationality.
• End family reunification as criterion for residence.
• Leave NATO.
• Process asylum applications abroad, not in France.
• Restore mandatory minimum sentences.
• Shift French foreign policy away from America and toward Russia.
• Stipulate French preference in public procurement.
• Stop most immigration.

Yannick Jadot

The Green party candidate has 4 to 6 percent support.

• Ban Russian energy imports.
• Ban short flights where trains are available.
• Ban single-use plastics by 2030.
• Build 3,000 onshore wind turbines and 40 km² of solar panels by 2027.
• Cut use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in half by 2027. (EU goal is 2030.)
• End cage farming and reduce the amount of fish caught.
• Equal pay for men and women.
• Legalize cannabis.
• Phase out nuclear power.
• Provide legal status to migrants who have a job, family or children in school.
• Raise tax on assets over €2 million.
• Require medicine graduates to practice in an underserved community for three years.

Anne Hidalgo

The Socialist Party candidate has 2 percent support in most recent surveys.

• Build 150,000 social housing units per year.
• Cut industry greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2035.
• Equal pay for men and women.
• Hire more police.
• Keep the retirement age at 62.
• Relax debt and deficit rules in the EU.
• Raise teachers’ pay.
• Raise the minimum wage from €1,230 to €1,430 per month.
• Train 15,000 new doctors per year.