Give us truth and lower taxes, says France

After a nationwide debate, the French government is ready to move towards reforms.

Dr Matthew Partridge
By
published
in Features

942-Macron-634

Macron put on a good show

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".

But it'll take more than that, says Pauline Bock in The New Statesman. The results suggest that the French want any reductions focused on sales tax, which disproportionately affects the poor. They also want some taxes to rise, with a large amount of support for "the reintroduction of the wealth tax that Macron abolished in 2017". Despite this, the French government has said that any tax cuts will be balanced by cuts in public spending, and have already vowed not to "change course" on several core policies, suggesting that "Macron's great debate" was "just for show".

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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Dr Matthew Partridge
Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri

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