Édouard Philippe differs most from the other ten candidates on two themes, tied with an average gap of 2.02 points: pensions and “Economy, taxes and debt”. He is the only one of the eleven who strongly agrees with raising the legal retirement age to 65; he also strongly agrees with funding part of pensions through invested savings, strongly disagrees with going back to 62 or lower and disagrees with all pensions rising at least in line with inflation. On the economy, he strongly agrees with cutting public spending first rather than raising taxes and with reducing the number of public servants, and strongly disagrees with bringing back a wealth tax and with a minimum tax on fortunes worth more than 100 million euros; on the latter, he is the only one who strongly disagrees.
The third theme is “Work and cost of living” (1.64 points). He is the only one who strongly disagrees with keeping the 35-hour week and, like Bruno Retailleau, he strongly agrees with paying unemployment benefits for a shorter time; he disagrees with raising the minimum wage to at least 1,600 euros a month after deductions and with cutting VAT on energy and motor fuel. With Gabriel Attal, he is also the only one who disagrees with creating a citizens’ initiative referendum (RIC), a position estimated for lack of a source.
He is closest to the rest on education (0.2 points, his smallest gap): he agrees with banning social media for children under 15 and takes an intermediate position on compulsory school uniform and on scrapping Parcoursup. Next come “Security and justice” (0.68 points) and “Society, secularism and regions” (0.87 points).
Of his 46 positions, 15 are in favour, 7 intermediate and 24 against; 14 are at the extremes (1 or 5) and 10, for lack of a source, are estimated. His highest match is with Gabriel Attal (86%), his lowest with Jean-Luc Mélenchon (36%).
