Le Pen vows to put French citizens first, tackle housing and cost-of-living crisis at first campaign speech

Le Pen Opens Campaign With Focus on Housing, Household Bills and National Priority

Poinews.com – Marine Le Pen placed living costs and access to housing at the centre of her first major presidential campaign address on Sunday, telling supporters in Hénin-Beaumont that French citizens should be given precedence in their own country.

Speaking in the former mining town in northern France, the National Rally figurehead presented “national priority” as a key principle of her programme. She said the approach would apply particularly to social housing, while insisting that it would cover all French nationals regardless of their background, religion or skin colour.

“We will guarantee all French citizens a natural and fair right, as is done in every country in the world.”

Le Pen said French citizens would enjoy greater rights in France than non-nationals under her leadership. Her remarks combined a long-standing National Rally policy with an appeal to voters frustrated by rent pressures, energy costs and weakening public services.

Housing and energy costs

The presidential candidate argued that housing shortages and affordability problems require action in both the social and private sectors. She criticised planning rules that she described as overly constrained by environmental and administrative requirements, saying they obstruct new construction.

She also promised to lower value-added tax on gas, electricity and heating oil from 20% to 5.5%. The proposal was framed as a direct response to the squeeze felt by households facing higher essential bills.

“Where is the money going when taxes and levies are getting heavier while the services delivered to French citizens are crumbling?”

Her campaign message linked tax complaints to broader concerns over purchasing power. By concentrating on housing and utility bills, Le Pen sought to make everyday economic pressures a central theme of the contest.

A political stronghold in the former mining region

Hénin-Beaumont has become one of the National Rally’s most recognisable local bases. The town has an estimated population of about 26,000, and its mayor, Steeve Briois, has held office for 14 years. Le Pen has represented Pas-de-Calais, the department in which the town sits, in the National Assembly since 2017.

Her political relationship with the region predates that parliamentary role. In 1998, nearly two decades before entering the National Assembly, she won her first elected mandate as a regional councillor for Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the area now known as Hauts-de-France.

“How can I express my gratitude at seeing so many of you this year again, here, on this beautiful patriotic former mining land,”

For National Rally supporters, the region carries political as well as industrial significance. Laurent Jacobelli, a party deputy and spokesperson, said the area’s mining past and the decline of public services helped explain why the party had built support there.

“The Pas-de-Calais region was formerly a mining hub, where people worked hard, paid their taxes, and gave everything to France to support their families and build homes. But they were violently let down by globalisation, by the failure of public services. Here we understood that sovereignty means something, that homeland and the nation are important values.”

Jacobelli said voters had been persuaded by Le Pen’s message that sovereignty and reindustrialisation could be achieved. Those themes have remained closely associated with the party’s effort to appeal to communities affected by economic change.

Unity display with Bardella

Jordan Bardella, who is seeking to become France’s next prime minister, did not speak at the gathering. Le Pen nevertheless led supporters in singing “Happy Birthday” to him, an apparent display of solidarity amid speculation over tensions between the party’s two leading figures.

The event followed a closed-door political meeting with National Rally MPs in Le Touquet on Saturday. Le Pen then travelled to Hénin-Beaumont for Sunday’s campaign appearance, where political activity coincided with the town’s annual flea market.

A planned parade was called off because of meteorological conditions, but sellers and visitors from Hénin-Beaumont and nearby towns still attended the market despite the rain. The turnout illustrated that the day remained a major local occasion beyond the campaign speech.

Support, criticism and the party’s image

Some residents voiced support for Le Pen’s political evolution. Cathy, a local resident, said National Rally positions had once seemed more difficult to defend, but that she no longer felt that way and regarded Marine Le Pen as “very brave”.

The party continues to face scrutiny over its history and the conduct of some figures associated with it. Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, the predecessor to the National Rally, faced repeated legal cases involving racism, hate speech and Holocaust denial. Since taking over the party, Marine Le Pen has worked to make its image more acceptable in France and internationally, while distancing it from her father’s legacy.

That effort was challenged again last week after video footage filmed in November 2025 showed several municipal police officers in Carcassonne making racist, sexist and conspiracy-related remarks during a night patrol. The images attracted national attention, although some local National Rally supporters said they had not heard about the video or did not view it as significant.

“I don’t think that just because we vote for Marine Le Pen that we are racists,”

The statement, made by Antoine, a 19-year-old National Rally activist, reflected a recurring argument among supporters: that backing the party should not automatically be treated as an endorsement of racism. Le Pen’s campaign will continue to confront that tension as it seeks to broaden its appeal while keeping national preference at the core of its political message.