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France’s Le Pen Boosts Budget Demands Ahead of Monday Deadline
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who holds outsize leverage in France’s split parliament, gave Prime Minister Michel Barnier until Monday to accede to her budget demands before she decides whether to topple the government. Le Pen’s National Rally is demanding that Barnier tweak his 2025 budget plans, which incorporates €60 billion ($63.5 billion) of fiscal adjustments, to abandon a proposal to reduce drug reimbursements, call a moratorium on new or higher taxes on most individuals, to index pensions to inflation from Jan. 1 and to enact tougher migration and crime policies. Barnier, who agreed yesterday to ... (full story)