“Stop the Tax Escalation”: Marine Le Pen Promises a Tobacco Tax Freeze to Support Tobacco Retailers

Marine Le Pen has promised to freeze tobacco taxes and stop linking tobacco prices automatically to inflation, presenting the measures as a way to “stop the tax escalation” and support France’s tobacconists.

The National Rally presidential candidate made the pledge in an open letter to tobacconists published by her party on Sunday evening. Her intervention came as the Confederation of Tobacconists called for a national mobilization beginning Monday to defend local shops and communities against rising tobacco prices and the growth of the parallel cigarette market.

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Stop the tax escalation.

Le Pen described tobacconists as vital to the social and economic life of towns and villages. She said she wanted to protect businesses operating legally, fight those organizing trafficking and give the profession greater visibility. The proposed economic measures include a freeze on tobacco taxes and removing the link between tobacco prices and inflation.

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Protect those who work legally, truly combat those who organize trafficking, and give your profession greater visibility.

“The permanent increase in the price of tobacco cannot, by itself, serve as public policy,” Le Pen said. She also proposed sharply increasing penalties for traffickers and street sellers. In addition, she called for expanded powers for municipal police, including the ability to take part in seizures of illicit products.

The article cited a customs study published in October 2025, which estimated that tobacco consumed in metropolitan France outside the national tax system represented an average fiscal shortfall of 4.3 billion euros in 2023. A Senate report from May 2024 said the state received 10.50 euros from a 12.50-euro premium pack of 20 cigarettes, while the tobacconist and manufacturer each received 1 euro.

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The permanent increase in the price of tobacco cannot, by itself, serve as public policy.