We verified three statements by Eric Coquerel

The LFI MP for Seine-Saint-Denis made several quantified statements in the 8:30 a.m. news on Franceinfo on Monday, September 9. Le Vrai ou Faux verified three of them.

The chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly was the guest of the 8:30 am news on franceinfo on Monday, September 9, and he gave figures after figures. Éric Coquerel, La France insoumise MP for Seine-Saint-Denis, gave an estimate of the fortune of the 500 richest people in the country and estimated that France was the European champion in dividends paid to shareholders and public aid to businesses. True or False?

Eric Coquerel claims that while “The 500 richest people in this country owned 20% [du PIB en 2017]Today, they own 45% of the GDP.”.

That’s pretty much true. That’s the estimate of the business magazine Challenges. Every year, for almost 30 years, it has published a report on the 500 largest fortunes in France. The magazine compiles estimates of all their professional assets, such as their stock market fortune, company accounts, and also looks at the health of their economic sector, then delivers its observations.

According to Challengesthe cumulative wealth of the 500 richest people in France has exceeded the equivalent of 45% of GDP in 2023, with an estimated wealth of 1,170 billion euros. This is an estimate that was given in mid-2023, by comparing the amount of this wealth to the GDP of the previous year which amounted to 2,638 billion euros in 2022 according to INSEE. Precisely, by redoing the calculation, we find 44% of GDP. The difference is small.

On the other hand, if we redo the calculation with the amount of this fortune in the annual GDP of the year 2023 which is now known and is 2,805 billion euros according to INSEE, then the fortune of the 500 richest in France represents 42%. A little less therefore than the figure indicated by Challenges and Eric Coquerel.

For 2024, the magazine estimates their fortune at 1,228 billion euros. The year is not over yet, it is not yet possible to compare this estimate to the GDP of 2024. If we do the same calculation as the magazine Challenges taking the GDP of the previous year, then the richest 500 own the equivalent of 44% of the GDP.

“France is also the European champion country for dividends paid. Out of approximately 150 billion in profits from the CAC40, half of it is paid out in dividends. Every year, we break these records.”also denounced the president of the Finance Committee of the Assembly.

And that’s pretty true too. According to the investment fund Janus Henderson Investors, which publishes a study on this subject every year, dividends paid exceeded 63 billion euros in 2023, ahead of Germany, Spain and Italy. A record.

On the other hand, if we look at the whole of Europe as a continent, then France is not first, but second on the podium just after the United Kingdom.

Eric Coquerel also assures that “France is also the European champion in terms of non-conditional aid to businesses. We reach 211 billion euros cumulatively per year.”

On this subject, it is more difficult to answer true or false, or even to answer at all. Contacted by franceinfo, Éric Coquerel said he was relying on a report from France Stratégie, a public service attached to the Prime Minister. This “Report on industrial policies” attempted to give an estimate of state aid to businesses but only found a very wide range from 139 billion euros to 223 billion euros in 2019, depending on the aid that is included in the calculation or not. The rebellious MP was wrong about the figure of 211 billion, he meant to talk about 223 billion euros instead.

This difference between the smallest and largest estimates shows how difficult it is to quantify this aid. There are more than 600 schemes according to this report, but nearly 2,000 according to the Vie publique website. These include the Competitiveness Tax Credit, the Research Tax Credit, and reduced-rate VAT. But some aids overlap, making them difficult to read even for informed observers and even more difficult to compare with other countries. It should also be noted that the report focuses on the year 2019, before the Covid pandemic and before the war in Ukraine, both of which pushed the State to release new aid for businesses. In short, everything is unclear, to the point that the Senate launched a fact-finding mission to clarify all this, but it has not yet issued its conclusions.

Furthermore, the France Stratégie report on which Éric Coquerel relies only provides a ranking allowing a European comparison and does not mention all aid to businesses but only public participation in the capital of businesses. France is third in Europe, behind Switzerland and Poland. On the other hand, it is first in Europe in terms of the degree of state intervention in business activity.

The Court of Auditors nevertheless produced a thematic note on state aid during crises and noted that France was the country that had helped its businesses the most during the pandemic in the European Union, tied with Germany, with 208 billion euros of aid in 2020-2021.