CAIRO (dpa) – The French government on Tuesday slammed a proposal by Socialist presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande to slap a 75 % tax on millionaires, saying such a punitive tax could drive away top talent. Hollande, who is leading incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in opinion polls ahead of the April 22-May 6 election, announced the proposal in an interview with TF1 television on Monday evening. Condemning what he called the “indecent wealth” of some French bosses, he proposed a 75 % tax on annual incomes of over 1 million euros (1.3 million dollars). The new tax would apply to the part of the income that exceeds 1 million euros. Hollande, a parliamentarian and former Socialist Party leader, had previously proposed a new 45 % tax on incomes exceeding 150,000 euros. That proposal still stood, he said. Defence Minister Gerard Longuet warned that a 75 % tax rate would make investors “go elsewhere.” “We need grey matter in France, we need decision makers,” he argued. Centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, of the MoDem party, and far-right National Front leader Marine le Pen, also slammed the Socialist proposal. Bayrou said senior executives would try to get round it by “off-shoring their salaries” into foreign accounts. Le Pen called the tax “absurd and ideological.” The debate comes as opinion polls show Sarkozy gaining ground on Hollande, two weeks after he formally entered the race. But he still has a mountain to climb to win reelection. A poll by Ifop-Fiducial polling company published Tuesday showed Hollande slipping 1.5 percentage points to 28.5 % of voter intentions in the first round of the election, compared with 27 % for Sarkozy, a jump of two points. Le Pen was running in third place at 17 % and Bayrou in fourth with 12.5 % – both little unchanged from previous polls. Where Sarkozy and Hollande part ways is at the second round. If, as expected, the election goes to a run-off between Sarkozy and Hollande on May 6, the poll showed most voters would rally behind Hollande, who would win with 56.5 %, compared with 43.5 % for Sarkozy. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/yz1Tz Tags: Elections, France, Hollande Section: Europe, Latest News
