Barnier promises not to raise taxes and to increase contributions from the richest

September 22 () –

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has promised on Sunday that the tax burden will not be increased, but taxes will be modified so that the richest contribute more to the public coffers.

“The richest must participate in the solidarity effort” without “raising taxes on all French people further,” Barnier explained in an interview on France 2 television.

Barnier has thus defended stopping the increase in public debt, “both ecological and financial.” “We must make a collective effort to control spending. This can be done with specific taxes on the richest, on companies. It can be done by controlling our public spending,” he stressed.

Barnier also said that there is no such thing as “cohabitation,” as the political moment in which a president of one political party and a prime minister of another political party coexist is known in France.

“What interests me is that all initiatives are expressed. We are not in cohabitation and at the same time there is no majority. I have tried to create a base, which is the most important thing for the Fifth Republic, and at the same time this base will be open,” he explained.

“I am not going to raise taxes any further for all French people (…), neither for the poorest, nor for workers, nor for the middle classes,” said Barnier. “That does not exclude the need for a national effort and for the richest to participate in this effort,” he explained.

Barnier has mentioned mental health as an important issue for him, which will be “the great national cause in 2025” and has defended the promotion of sport following the thread of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.