Disinfox. Kindergarten to one year, four months of vacation for the president… Did our politicians really propose that?

Seven months before the first round of the presidential election, the campaign officially began. Several candidates have already declared themselves candidates and others are dangling it. And while waiting to be decided by the primaries or the sorting of sponsorships, everyone is making their proposals to attract media attention. The latest to have provoked a reaction is that formulated several times by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of La France insoumise in the presidential election, to erase the French debt.

Canceling the French debt would be an “illegal, dangerous and useless” measure, Bank of France Governor Emmanuel Moulin said on Friday. The President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde ruled on Thursday that canceling the French debt held by the monetary institution would constitute “a pure violation of the treaty” on the European Union.

A brief overview of the political proposals that provoke reactions.

Former Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire is one of the potential presidential contenders. Although he has not yet declared himself a candidate, at the end of August he published a manifesto “for another France” with a view to the election. The former minister, who has withdrawn from politics for two years, is also gradually making his return to the media. He was particularly noted on Tuesday for having proposed on CNews to allow children to enter kindergarten from the age of 1, in reaction to the poor results of the Pisa survey. “In this way, you ensure that all children in France have the ability to be in a collective place where they will begin to learn words,” he explained. For Bruno Le Maire, “the multiplication of reforms, circulars, instructions given to teachers, it does not work” and we must “rethink our educational model”.

However, his proposal is not unanimous. “I don’t think so, one child in two does not know how to walk at that age,” said the Minister of National Education, Edouard Geffray, on TF1. This is a “totally absurd” measure, Aurélie Gagnier, general secretary of the FSU-SNUipp teaching union, also told Ouest-France.

What if lying became punishable by ineligibility? This is the proposal made by Marine Tondelier, environmentalist presidential candidate. On her blog, the national secretary of the Ecologists proposed on Friday September 4 to adopt a law “to prohibit lying in politics” in order to have “a quality public debate”.

It specifies that this law will not sanction error or imprecision, nor a change of opinion. Only “factual and deliberate lies” will be punished. “Your statement must be factually false. The author of the sentence must be well aware of this falsity or, at the very least, he must not be able to ignore it, and finally, he must have had the intention to deceive, that is to say, this statement serves very specific interests,” indicates the candidate.

Vacation in the event of election for Edouard Philippe

“Edouard Philippe’s number one priority if he is elected President of the Republic: take one or two weeks of vacation, because ‘it doesn’t hurt'”, mocks the Loiret deputy and spokesperson for the National Rally Thomas Ménage on X. Has the president of Horizons expressed his desire to rest as soon as the election is over? Not really. The mayor of Le Havre and declared candidate for the presidential election, guest on Monday on the podcast of entrepreneur Pauline Laigneau, spoke of postponing the presidential inauguration from May to September, based on what is done in the United States.

For Edouard Philippe, this transition period would allow the future president to “rest” for one or two weeks, but above all would give him “time to consult much more slowly (…) the social partners, foreign heads of state, well, lots of people. He would have time to put together his teams, to give orders for the beginning of September,” imagines the one who judges the French calendar “completely crazy”.

“Laziness in power,” began LFI deputy Hadrien Clouet, calling on the former Prime Minister to “go on unpaid leave.” “Édouard Philippe constantly calls the French lazy but is tired after only 4 weeks of campaigning and is already asking for 4 months of vacation,” National Rally MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy also criticized on X. “France does not have a minute to lose,” commented Gabriel Attal.

The RN wants to ban the wearing of the veil

Another proposal, but which provoked just as much reaction: that formulated by the National Rally to ban the wearing of the veil. MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy said on August 30 that if Marine Le Pen was elected, his party planned to “sanction the wearing of the Islamic veil” with a “fine”. “If there are women who wear the veil when it is prohibited, they will be fined,” in the same way as “people who do not wear seat belts,” Marine Le Pen’s lieutenant said on BFMTV. The National Rally candidate subsequently confirmed on

The measure, which was already on Marine Le Pen’s program during the previous presidential elections, sparked an outcry. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon, and supporter of Edouard Philippe, expressed “obvious reservations” about this proposal.

Pay the president the minimum wage for Ruffin

The measure may seem incongruous, as it contrasts with the current situation. The Somme deputy François Ruffin, candidate for the presidential election and former rebel, wants the President of the Republic to be paid the minimum wage. He believes that the head of state is already housed, fed and paid and that his salary is like “pocket money”. “I will be a president on minimum wage, yes, because the salary of a president is pocket money, it is all expenses paid,” he said again on Wednesday. Currently, presidential remuneration is set at 16,000 euros gross monthly.

Former President François Hollande welcomed this proposal as “a laudable call for modesty and economy in the exercise of the presidential function”, but sees limits “unless you want to live outside the Elysée without a driver or protection and do your own cooking”. “What is expected of a president is first of all to change the lives of the French more than his own,” he added.