Le Pen vs Attal: how alike are they?

In brief

How do Le Pen and Attal differ?

Marine Le Pen (Rassemblement National) and Gabriel Attal (Renaissance) disagree on more test statements than they agree on, among those where both have a sourced position. Le Pen wants the legal retirement age to go back to 62 or lower, all pensions to rise at least in line with inflation, the 35-hour week to stay, VAT on electricity, gas and motor fuel to be cut and a wealth tax to be brought back, which Attal rejects; he, on the other hand, supports paying unemployment benefits for a shorter time, which she opposes. She wants to abolish birthright citizenship, suspend family reunification and scrap low-emission zones, which he opposes. On Europe and defence, she wants French law to take precedence over European law and France to leave NATO’s integrated command; he wants the European Union to take more decisions by majority and France to offer to extend its nuclear deterrent to European partners, and each rejects the other’s positions. They agree on cutting public spending before raising taxes, funding part of pensions through invested savings, new nuclear reactors, higher military spending, a presumption of self-defence for police officers and banning girls under 18 from wearing the headscarf in public spaces; both reject raising the retirement age to 65, legal status for undocumented workers and leaving the European Union.

This summary is based on the candidates’ documented positions on the test statements; the source of each position is on each candidate’s page. Updated 19/10/2026.