The top five candidates in the first round on 23 April range from far right to hard left. See what that means for their policies

Voters cast their ballots in the first round of the French presidential election on 23 April, with candidates ranging from far right to hard left vying to reach a second round run-off and, from there, the Elysée Palace.

The policies of the top five contenders – François Fillon, Marine Le Pen, Benoît Hamon, Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon - on state spending, immigration, the environment and the economy reveal their different positions.

Labour and welfare

Scrap France’s 35-hour week and allow companies to negotiate staff working hours. Boost businesses by reducing corporate taxes by €40bn (£35bn). Raise the retirement age from 62 to 65. Put a progressive cap on unemployment benefits. Reform the labour code to allow more flexibility for businesses. Reduce social charges on the lowest salaries.

The state, finances and society

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Reduce public spending by €100bn in five years. Cut 500,000 public sector jobs, or 8% of the public sector workforce. Increase public sector working hours from 35 to 39 hours a week in areas such as health and state administration. Reform social security coverage and health system payments. Streamline benefits by introducing a single payment. Cut benefits to families if a child skips school or commits anti-social behaviour.

Bring back school uniform. Rewrite school history teaching to give more sense of the glorious moments of French history. Maintain the ban on medically assisted procreation such as IVF and the use of sperm donors for single women and women in same-sex relationships. Limit parental rights for same-sex couples.

Europe

Reform the Schengen travel accords to tighten control of the EU’s external borders. Stronger EU cooperation on defence. A political leadership of the eurozone by heads of state and government, with regular summits of eurozone leaders. A stridently positive policy towards Russia. Fillon said before winning his party’s primary race that Moscow was no threat and should be a partner in Syria and that European sanctions should be lifted.

Immigration

Annual quotas set by parliament to keep immigration to a strict minimum. Limit the ability of foreigners to join family members in France. Limit the ability of foreigners to gain French nationality. Renegotiate the Le Touquet accords, the –deal with Britain that keeps border checks, and thousands of refugees and migrants – on the French side of the Channel at Calais. Speed up asylum applications.

Crime and security

Set age of criminal responsibility at 16. Create 16,000 new prison places. Hire 5,000 more police and redeploy another 5,000. Bring intelligence services under one umbrella. Withdraw French nationality from jihadis and prevent them from returning to France. Expel convicted foreign criminals. Set defence spending at 2% of GDP.



Environment

Scale up nuclear energy sites and close coal-fired power stations. Amend the environmental charter added to the French constitution by Jacques Chirac in 2005 that states that if an action is deemed to pose a serious and irreversible threat to the environment, the state can intervene to stop it. Fillon argues that scrapping the clause will allow more innovation on environmental issues. He has also said it is “criminal” for France to ban research on shale gas.

Labour and welfare

Universal basic income, initially for low-paid workers and students, then extended to all. Tax on robots to pay for retraining and to underwrite the cost of jobs they replace. Priority for products “made in France”. Fifty per cent of government contracts reserved for small- and medium-sized businesses. Raise the minimum wage. Officially recognise “burnout” at work as an illness and take steps to prevent it. Roll back François Hollande’s loosening of labour laws.

The state, finances, society

Five-year investment plan worth €100bn for urban and environmental renovation. A tax on banks’ “super-profits”. Build 150,000 social housing units a year. Create 40,000 teaching jobs in five years. New citizens’ rights to challenge parliament and push referendums on laws. Hold a referendum on giving foreigners the right to vote in local elections.

Begin talks on overhauling French institutions to create a “sixth republic”, introducing proportional representation and a single seven-year presidential term. Bring in an anti-monopoly law on the media. Lift the ban on medically assisted procreation such as IVF and the use of sperm donors for single women and same-sex women couples. Legalise cannabis. Legalise assisted suicide.

Europe

Switch emphasis from free market to greater social protection. Create a eurozone assembly with powers to control decisions made by heads of state and to fix a budget and harmonise tax. Create a joint European energy and environmental strategy. More defence cooperation.

Immigration

Speed up asylum application process. Set up a new “humanitarian visa” system for refugees. Renegotiate the EU’s Dublin regulations under which asylum seekers have to remain in the first EU country they enter.

Crime and security

Bring back community policing. Create 9,000 more police and gendarme jobs. Monitor stop-and-search operations by making police write reports and receipts each time they stop someone. Improve coordination of intelligence services. Raise defence spending to 2% of GDP.

Environment

Fifty per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2015, and 100% by 2050. Phase out diesel. No new diesel cars after 2025. Phase out nuclear power over 25 years. Ban the use of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Push for alternatives to pesticide.

Labour and welfare

Give priority to French workers. Make employers who hire foreigners, including EU citizens, pay an extra tax of 10% of the employee’s salary. Lower the retirement age from 62 to 60. Reduce income tax for the lowest earners. Impose an import tax on products made by French firms abroad. Keep the 35-hour week as a base, but allow different professions to negotiate different working hours.

The state, finances, society

A commitment to give “national priority” to French people over non-nationals in jobs, housing and welfare to be written into the constitution after a referendum. Ban the wearing of all visible religious symbols in all public spaces.

Scrap several tiers of local administration, including the regions. Introduce proportional representation for all elections. Reduce the number of MPs and senators. Fly French flags outside all public buildings and take down EU flags. Cut the price of gas and electricity immediately by 5%. Reintroduce school uniform.

Europe

Launch negotiations with the EU for France to regain border control, economic and monetary sovereignty and authority over laws. Hold an in-out referendum on EU membership within six months of taking power. Leave Schengen and the euro.

Immigration

Reduce legal immigration to 10,000 people a year. Scrap French nationality rights for children born to two foreign parents in France. Stop regularising illegal immigrants. Make foreigners’ children wait two years before they can access free state education. Scrap state medical help for illegal immigrants.

Security and defence



Hire an extra 15,000 police and gendarmes. Create 40,000 more prison places. Withdraw French nationality rights from jihadis who have fought abroad. Expel foreigners whose names are on intelligence lists for suspected radicalisation. Raise defence spending to 3% of GDP. Introduce compulsory military service for at least three months. Pull France out of the Nato command structure.

Environment

Promote nuclear power. Reduce consumption of fossil fuels. Maintain the ban on fracking for shale gas. Promote hydrogen cars, and agriculture on a “human” rather than industrial scale.

Labour and welfare

More flexibility on labour laws and a loosening of the 35-hour week. Lower taxes on businesses, and a permanent reduction of companies’ social charges. Reform the unemployment system to extend it to more people, including the self-employed, but with more control to ensure job seekers accept offers and retrain. Keep the retirement age at 62, but smooth over differences between state and private pensions. Increase social mobility by giving companies who hire people from 200 designated poor neighbourhoods a €15,000 bonus over three years.

The state, finances and society

A public investment plan of €50bn over five years. Cut €60bn in public spending through changes to the public sector workforce and cuts to local administration. Scrap 120,000 public sector jobs by 2022. Scrap housing tax for 80% of households. Adapt the wealth tax by focusing it on property. Tax global internet giants on the profits they make in France.

Cut the number of MPs in parliament. Ban MPs and senators from employing family members or working as consultants while in office. Lift the ban on medically assisted procreation such as IVF and the use of sperm donors for single women and same-sex women couples. A €500 “culture pass” for all 18-year-olds with which they can buy books or go to culture events.

Europe

Maintain the Schengen travel area. Boost the EU’s external border controls by creating 5,000 more border guards. Establish a eurozone budget, parliament and economy and finance minister. Create a European security council. Hold citizen “conventions” across Europe to discuss the EU’s future and the importance of the European project.

Immigration

Deal with asylum applications in six months or less. Oblige those applying for French nationality to speak good French.

Security and defence

Restore compulsory military service for a month for all young men and women. Bring defence spending to 2% of GDP. Modernise France’s nuclear arsenal. Create 10,000 more police and gendarmes and improve community policing. Create 15,000 new prison places.

Environment

Insulate 1m homes in five years. Limit advantages to the diesel industry. Give a payment of €1,000 for the purchase of a new or second-hand vehicle that pollutes less. Progressively reduce nuclear energy production. Introduce a single European energy market. Fight the use of hormone-disrupting chemicals and pesticides.

Labour and welfare

Raise the minimum wage and civil servants’ salaries. Lower the retirement age to 60 from 62. Scrap Hollande’s labour law changes. Roll back new rules on Sunday working. Give workers an extra week of holiday a year. Hold a consultation on shortening the 35-hour working week to 32 hours. Limit fat-cat pay by fixing maximum salaries in companies. Scrap stock options.

The state, finances and society

Separate retail from investment banking. All French nationals to pay a universal tax, including if they live abroad. Hold a referendum to begin the process of writing a new constitution for a sixth republic. Introduce proportional representation for parliament elections. Lower the voting age to 16. Make voting compulsory. Give foreigners the right to vote in local elections.

Zero homelessness by the end of the presidency. Full reimbursement by the state of all prescribed healthcare costs. Legalise cannabis. Lift the ban on medically assisted procreation such as IVF and the use of sperm donors for single women and same-sex women couples. Hire at least 60,000 teachers.

Europe

Renegotiate the EU treaties. Put the new agreed treaties to a referendum. If the treaty renegotiation fails, consider leaving the EU. Devalue the euroIntroduce a moratorium on debt repayments.

Immigration

Regularise illegal workers. Create a new agency to deal with migration alongside the UN Refugee Agency. Increase civil rescue services to stop migrants drowning in the Mediterranean. Build shelters to house asylum seekers to prevent rough-sleeping, along the lines of the centre at Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk.

Crime and security

Bring back community policing. Introduce compulsory receipts for police stop-and-search operations in order to ban the arbitrary targeting of black people and other ethnic minorities. Hire 10,000 police. Allow parliament to vote on ending the state of emergency. Leave Nato.

Environment

Add a new green clause to the constitution that France should not take from nature more than nature can give. Phase out nuclear and fossil-fuel energy. Produce 100% of energy from renewable sources by 2050. Renationalise state utility companies. Stop “useless” big state infrastructure projects.