Socialist party to fight for a wealth tax as talks begin on French budget

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.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Boris Vallaud, the head of the Socialist party grouping in parliament, said yesterday 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, who 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. It would affect about 0.01% of taxpayers.