Give us truth and lower taxes, says France
After a nationwide debate, the French government is ready to move towards reforms.
After a "nationwide debate" organised by President Macron, billed "as one of the greatest advances in democracy since Athens", the French government is "poised to begin a second wave of reforms", says Adam Sage in The Times. The results of the consultation, which included 1.9 million posts on a website, as well as suggestions from books placed in 16,337 town and village halls, seem to indicate that voters want "honesty and lower taxes". Prime Minister Edouard Philippe acknowledged frustration at tax rates that are "the highest of any developed country" and promised to "lower taxes and lower them faster".
Yet that show "more successfully bludgeoned the yellow vests into submission than any number of riot police", says Adam Nossiter in The New York Times. Only 22,300 people marched in a protest across France on Saturday; support for the movement has fallen to 35%. Macron also "clawed back some of the popularity he lost" at the height of the protests, overtaking Marine Le Pen's far-right party in the polls for the European elections.
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