“I dig a hole, GDP goes up. I fill it in, GDP goes up.” French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon signalled his distrust of orthodox economics at a rally in Clermont-Ferrand on October 11. The leader of leftist party La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, made the point that GDP is only a measure of economic activity – not whether that activity makes people’s lives any better. With French politics increasingly polarised, Mélenchon and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are expected to face each other in a run-off, the latest polls suggest. Mélenchon advocates for moving away from a free-market economic model in favour of a planned economy. He also wants to suspend the EU’s trade agreement with Israel, raise the minimum wage and increase taxes on high earners.

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