We believed this hypothesis of a taxation of the super-profits of large groups buried by the executive, now Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne opened the door to this tax on Sunday August 28 in an interview with the Parisian-Today in France. This is a real risk-taking, firstly because, for the time being, Emmanuel Macron and Bruno Le Maire do not want to hear about it. The Elysée and Bercy dismiss any additional tax.
Of course, Elisabeth Borne holds the line of the executive. She would prefer that companies lower their prices, increase their employees, use for example the Macron bonus to restore purchasing power to the French. But she does “don’t close the door”, these are his words, to a tax on super-profits. And this little personal music, which she had already leaked during the legislative campaign, could encourage some walking deputies from the left wing of the majority to also give voice in favor of such a tax.
It is also an indirect encouragement to certain oppositions. This is the other risk taken by Elisabeth Borne because the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure, is calling for a referendum on the subject. He has also decided to initiate the procedure of the referendum of shared initiative, that is to say that he must obtain the support of 20% of parliamentarians and 10% of the electorate, i.e. 4.7 million voters. . 20% of the electorate, that makes 185 deputies and senators combined. Besides, all the lefts have a lot more.
By leaving the door open or ajar, Elisabeth Borne almost encourages the opposition to mobilize to obtain this famous referendum. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, moreover, was not mistaken. He demanded even stronger on Sunday the taxation of those he calls “war profiteers”.
The shared initiative referendum proposed by @faureolivier to tax the superprofits, if it is accepted by the rebellious parliamentary group, will be the first great arm wrestling which must show our capacity for combat and organization.#MeetingNUPES #AMFIS2022 pic.twitter.com/K59Sf4sODi
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) August 28, 2022
So why does Elisabeth Borne say that? Probably because it would be even more dangerous, politically, to give the impression of remaining deaf to such a claim. Because many of our neighbors – the UK, Spain, Italy – have implemented such a tax. The CAC40 groups posted record profits in the first half and paid equally record dividends to their shareholders.
There are two ways of understanding this context. One is purely economic and it pushes Bercy to cling to its mantra: no new tax, everything for the relief of charges. This is the credo of the supply policy in effect since 2007, and even before that. And then, there is a more political approach which encourages us not to exclude anything, to be more pragmatic, just in case. And after all, as we saw with the famous “whatever the cost” during the Covid crisis, isn’t pragmatism the self-proclaimed definition of Macronism?