Party has promised to stand back as weakened prime minister prepares for crucial no-confidence vote
The French Socialist party says it will fight to introduce a flagship wealth tax to raise revenue by targeting France’s richest people, as the divided parliament prepares to begin debating next year’s budget.
Boris Vallaud, the head of the Socialist party grouping in parliament, said on Wednesday that taxing very high-wealth individuals in France was “one of our principal battles and we’re going to put all our energy into it”.
The centre-left party is seeking to capitalise on the unprecedented political crisis that has weakened the new centrist prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, after he resigned last week and was reappointed four days later.
The Socialists are now proposing the “Zucman tax”, named after an idea put forward by the French economist Gabriel Zucman, under which a 2% levy would be imposed on wealth above €100m, which would affect about 0.01% of taxpayers.
