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Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to boost the retirement age by two years to 64 has ignited a debate in egalitarian-minded France: are the billionaires responsible?
As labour unions held a second huge strike on Tuesday, which drew lots of of hundreds of individuals on to the streets throughout the nation, leftwing politicians have gone on the assault to argue that taxing the super-rich could be a greater method to plug deficits within the state-run pension system.
Specifically, Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest man and proprietor of French luxurious group LVMH, has change into a lightning rod with protesters at latest marches carrying indicators together with his face on a wished poster and exhorting him to do extra for the widespread good.
François Ruffin, a member of parliament for the Somme area and outstanding determine within the leftwing Nupes alliance, has been particularly vocal in linking the controversy over pensions reform and the way in which wealth is shared (or not) in French society.
“The billionaires have solely gotten richer because the Covid-19 pandemic, Macron refuses to tax windfall earnings made by our greatest corporations, and one way or the other all the hassle to repair the pensions downside should fall on the shoulders of employees?” he mentioned in an interview.
“It is a second to struggle for the type of society we would like — not one the place capital crushes labour and persons are simply customers.”
It’s straightforward to dismiss this as typical soak-the-rich discuss that usually surfaces in France the place wealth is considered with suspicion. However there may be extra to it.
Quickly after his 2017 election, Macron was nicknamed “president of the wealthy” by opponents for his pro-business agenda. His authorities has minimize taxes paid by corporations, diminished unemployment advantages and, most controversially, scrapped a wealth tax.
Opponents of Macron’s pension reform — which might raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and speed up the transition from 41 to 43 years of contributions for a full pension — see it as a part of a collection of insurance policies that favour the rich and companies over working folks.
Authorities officers rebut that by pointing to declining unemployment and powerful overseas direct funding figures as proof, the Macron financial agenda has paid off. Plus the federal government has been beneficiant with assist to blunt the ache first of the pandemic and inflation touched off by the vitality disaster, they argue.
Nonetheless, the “president of the wealthy” critique has been ably exploited by far-right chief Marine Le Pen to rack up votes amongst blue-collar employees, helping her party win an unprecedented 88 seats within the Nationwide Meeting in June. In the meantime, the far-left customary bearer Jean-Luc Mélenchon has used Macron as a foil to argue that capitalism and globalisation are discredited models that should take a again seat to social justice and combating local weather change.
Given this political backdrop, the alternatives Macron made in his retirement proposal could show dangerous. To fill the deficits brought on by there being fewer workers for every retiree in coming a long time, he needs everybody to work longer. It’s a burden that weighs extra closely on individuals who begin work at a youthful age and people with bodily difficult jobs.
He additionally set out crimson traces: corporations wouldn’t be requested to pay increased taxes, nor would present retirees, even the wealthier ones, be requested to contribute.
The left objected and promptly recognized supposed alternate options, whereas additionally calling for the retirement age to be introduced again all the way down to 60. Oxfam declared that each one it could take was a 2 per cent tax on France’s billionaires to plug the €12bn annual pension deficit anticipated by 2027. One leftist lawmaker tweeted that French start-ups had raised €13.5bn in 2022 so why not look there, whereas Mélenchon’s get together in contrast the pensions deficit to the €80bn in dividends paid by corporations in France’s blue-chip CAC 40 index.
These concepts make little financial sense, however they don’t have to for them to be good politics. Polls present nearly three-quarters of French oppose elevating the retirement age.
Ruffin, a former journalist who rose to fame by making a muckraking documentary about Bernard Arnault, way back realised the facility of personalising the confrontation between capital and labour. “Bernard Arnault doesn’t have 400,000 instances extra advantage than the employees stitching purses on his manufacturing traces,” he mentioned.
Arnault hit again on Thursday as he unveiled LVMH’s record annual profits, arguing that group had employed 15,000 folks in France final yr and paid €4.5bn in taxes and social fees in its dwelling market.
None of that may cease Ruffin. “We’ve to capitalise on this second,” he mentioned.
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