Marine Le Pen pledges social housing priority for French citizens in 2027 campaign speech

Campaign focus on housing in Hénin-Beaumont

Rassemblement National presidential candidate Marine Le Pen placed housing policy at the centre of her political return on 13 September 2026 in Hénin-Beaumont. Speaking for 38 minutes before supporters, Le Pen was the sole speaker at the event, which was attended by party president Jordan Bardella on his 31st birthday. Le Pen stated that housing reform would serve as one of the primary undertakings of her five-year term if elected in 2027. Her address omitted several international and domestic topics, including the war in Ukraine, Iran, Ceuta, the European Union, pensions, and the Islamic veil. Instead, the speech focused on purchasing power and middle-class living conditions while attacking the record of Emmanuel Macron and former prime ministers Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal.

“After 10 years of Macron, Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, we no longer do an analysis, we do an autopsy.”

National priority and deregulation agenda

The core of Le Pen's programme applies national priority rules to the housing market by restricting municipal social housing (HLM) allocations and personal housing assistance (APL) benefits to French nationals. Under this framework, nationality would replace income levels and family size as the primary criterion for social housing access. Le Pen proposed repealing the 2000 Urban Solidarity and Renewal (SRU) law, which requires municipalities with more than 3,500 residents (or 1,500 in the Paris urban area) to maintain 20% or 25% social housing by 2025. Her platform also includes selling select social housing units to French citizens, evicting the families of convicted criminals from public housing, and enacting anti-squatting legislation. To stimulate private housing supply, Le Pen proposed ceding public land free of charge to developers in exchange for affordable rental construction, converting empty commercial office spaces into residences, rolling back environmental building standards, and replacing current energy performance certificate regulations with zero-interest renovation loans.

“French citizens, whatever their skin colour or religion, will have priority in their own country.”

Rebuttal from housing bodies and tenant associations

The proposals drew immediate criticism from housing sector leaders and tenant organizations. Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the Union sociale pour l'habitat (USH) and former housing minister, described the plan to restrict social housing to French nationals as a xenophobic whim. Cosse stated that foreign applicants do not receive preferential treatment in allocations, noting that their rate of access remains lower than that of French households. According to USH figures, foreign families account for 15% of tenants in the French social housing stock, up from 12% recorded nine years earlier. The Confédération nationale du logement stated that restricting access based on nationality would not resolve the housing shortage, noting that nearly 2.9 million households were waiting for social housing in 2025. The association argued that blaming foreign residents misrepresents the underlying lack of social housing construction.

“Foreigners are not favoured when entering social housing, there is no favouritism. Their access is even lower compared to French households.”

Legislative context and upcoming sector summit

The policy announcements precede the annual HLM Congress, which convenes from 22 to 24 September 2026 in Bordeaux. Nationality criteria for public housing have featured in Le Pen's campaigns since 2017, when she argued that social housing was disproportionately allocated to new arrivals, a position she reiterated during the 2022 presidential race. In 2024, the Rassemblement National parliamentary group submitted a draft bill seeking to make French nationality the initial criterion examined in social housing allocation committees. While the Hénin-Beaumont address outlined the initial domestic platform for the 2027 presidential election, Le Pen announced that her official presidential campaign will begin in October 2026 in Orléans.