By William Horobin 

PARIS--French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron moved Friday to counter rivals and critics who say his campaign lacks substance, presenting a detailed economic program centered on cuts to welfare spending and a EUR50 billion ($53 billion) investment plan.

Mr. Marcon, leader of fledgling political party En Marche, said he would target EUR60 billion of savings a year by the end of his five-year term as president. The cuts initially would focus on limiting health-care spending and paring France's generous unemployment benefits. As president, he said he would also would eliminate 120,000 public-sector jobs.

Taking advantage of the low cost of government borrowing, Mr. Macron said his investment plan would focus on renewable energy and training programs for young people and the unemployed.

"I want to make our public spending more efficient while also financing a transformation of our growth model," Mr. Macron in an interview published in Friday's print edition of the French daily Les Echos.

In detailing his economic proposals, Mr. Macron's is testing his ability to preserve the broad support that has made him one of the front-runners in the race to become France's next president in May.

By putting figures on his pledges, the 39-year-old Mr. Macron, who has never held elected office, risks opening himself to criticism from leftists and the National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who say France is already constrained by European Union-inspired austerity.

The center-right Les Républicains party, however, says France needs steep tax cuts and sharp reductions in public spending. Their candidate, François Fillon, has promised to make EUR100 billion in spending cuts annually by the end of his five-year term as president and slash 500,000 public-sector jobs.

Recent polls for the first round of France's two-round presidential election show Mr. Macron trailing Ms. Le Pen but ahead of Mr. Fillon. The same surveys show that Mr. Macron would rally enough support from across the political spectrum to win the second-round runoff against National Front leader Marine Le Pen.

However, Mr. Macron's voter base is fragile. According to Ifop's tracking poll of 1,395 people between Sunday and Thursday, only 49% of Mr. Macron's voters are sure of their choice compared with 63% of Mr. Fillon's and 79% of Ms. Le Pen's. The poll shows Ms. Le Pen winning the first round with 26.5%, ahead of Mr. Macron 22.5% and Mr. Fillon on 20.5%

A former economy minister in the Socialist government of François Hollande, Mr. Macron is positioning himself as a centrist by mixing policies associated with both the French right and left.

As an olive branch to leftist voters he has pledged to extend France's generous unemployment benefits to the self-employed and sanction employers who make regular layoffs. But he says he would also trim EUR10 billion from unemployment benefit spending and loosen strict labor laws to give companies more flexibility to hire and fire.

"France is one of the only large European Union countries that has not resolved its problem of mass unemployment: that should be our priority," Mr. Macron said.

The presidential candidate's tax proposals also had a pro-business slant with cuts to corporate tax and employers' social security contributions. But Mr. Macron says he wouldn't go as far as Mr. Fillon in shifting the tax burden to households from businesses and the wealthy. Unlike the center-right candidate, Mr. Macron said he would not raise sales taxes and would adjust, rather than abolish, France's wealth tax.

"I want a new social and economic model. Unlike François Fillon, I don't believe in purging or repairing the country against its will," Mr. Macron told Les Echos.

Write to William Horobin at William.Horobin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2017 08:40 ET (13:40 GMT)

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