A report by UBS bank placing France on the podium of the countries with the most millionaires provoked the indignation of several left-wing politicians on Wednesday, who denounce an explosion of inequalities and the policy of Emmanuel Macron. “French millionaires can say thank you to Macron’s tax gifts”, reacted on X (ex-Twitter) the leader of La France Insoumise in the European Parliament, Manon Aubry.
Cock-a-doodle Doo !
French millionaires can say thank you to Macron’s tax gifts!
And too bad for the 10 million poor… https://t.co/60ik0WnDR2
— Manon Aubry (@ManonAubryFr) August 16, 2023
The “Global Wealth Report”, annual report of the Swiss bank UBS published on Tuesday, counts in 2022 more than 2.8 million people in France whose real estate and financial assets exceed one million dollars (around 915,000 euros). A figure up slightly from last year, with 25,000 additional millionaires, but which remains stable over two years, according to previous reports from Credit Suisse – recently acquired by UBS.
“The Americanization of France”
“Meanwhile, there are 300,000 homeless people, 10 million poor people, one in two French people is forced to skip a meal”, the rebellious deputy is indignant Thomas Gates. Olivier Faure, he focuses on another data of the report: the 3,890 “ultra rich”, who have a heritage of more than 50 million dollars. “Who are the despoiled?”, pretends to wonder the first secretary of the Socialist Party, which opposes these millionaires to the 9 million people below the poverty line.
Others, like the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau, mock the image of “fiscal hell” regularly attached to France, to better point the finger at the economic and fiscal policy of the President of the Republic. “This is the Americanization of France imposed by forced march by Emmanuel Macron”. The number of millionaires in the country is not the only angle of attack from the left, which denounces Emmanuel Macron as the “president of the rich” since the start of his mandate, and in particular the abolition of the wealth tax .
The historical strength of France was its social model resistant to all crises and its level of inequality, among the lowest of the rich countries.
All of that is behind us.
This is the Americanization of France imposed by force by E Macron. https://t.co/6CAesBWMZS— Sandrine Rousseau (@sandrousseau) August 16, 2023
“We need a better distribution of wealth”
The fortune of personalities like Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH group, who regularly disputes the title of the richest man in the world with Elon Musk, is also put forward as proof of inequalities. “The Arnault family has benefited this year from an additional 2.9 billion in dividends. (…) We need a better distribution of wealth, so that we all live better,” said the rebellious deputy Alexis Corbière on Europe 1. Only 400,000 in 2000, French millionaires could be more than 4 million in 2027, according to the report published by UBS.