“This is the start of a long battle to bring billionaires into national solidarity,” assures Gabriel Zucman

The economist launches “a major citizen battle for tax justice”. The tax on the highest assets that he proposed and which was rejected by the National Assembly, will be, he assures, “a central issue in the 2027 presidential election”.

“This is the start of a long battle,” warns Tuesday November 4 on HERE Pays d’Auvergne Gabriel Zucman after the rejection of the tax on the highest assets in the National Assembly last Friday. The economist assures that “Battles of this nature always take time to win.”

Gabriel Zucman is in Clermont-Ferrand to launch “a great citizen battle for tax justice” and plans, subsequently, to go to different cities in France. According to him, it is time to “bring billionaires into national solidarity” and for the moment, they do not participate in this solidarity, assures the economist. He says he is convinced that this tax will remain at the heart of the debate in the coming weeks, months and years. “This will be a central issue in the 2027 presidential election. There is a very strong demand for tax justice which is expressed in the unequal context of our country and the explosion in the concentration of wealth over the past 30 years and in the budgetary context.”

Nearly 86% of French people say they are in favor of taxing the ultra-rich, according to an Ifop poll commissioned by the Socialist Party last September, which did not prevent the rejection of the “Zucman tax” in the National Assembly (172 votes for and 228 against). “Those who are concerned are mobilizing”explains the economist. Gabriel Zucman who quotes the Financial Times : “France, more than any other country in Western Europe, is characterized by the influence of billionaires on the economic and democratic life of the nation.” “This tax would only concern 1 800 homes in France. As a reminder, this involves taxing assets over 100 million euros at a rate of 2%.

On the risk of seeing the largest taxpayers leave with the implementation of this tax, he mentions that tax exile is a choice of public policy, “we can choose to tolerate it or fight it.” The economist suggests taxing potential tax exiles for a certain number of years after their departure.