ANALYSIS – The French indulge in the delights of class struggle. Their only target is the 1%, or even the top 10% income earners. This affluent, educated and envied population is very heterogeneous strictly in financial terms.
Emmanuel Macron, “the president of the rich,” proclaims the rumor, the most agile of all evils. “No, he is the president of the very rich,” corrects François Hollande, who has become the nitpicking concierge of his successor at the Élysée. “We also want to pay the wealth tax, give back the money,” the “yellow vests” shouted all winter.
Never have the rich and their wealth been talked about so much, from the owners of the Gafa, to the inheritance of Johnny Hallyday, or the jackpot of footballers who are much more generously remunerated than the CAC 40 bosses, but better accepted, as if football were the “opium of the people.” “With 4000 euros per month,” François Hollande declared, peremptorily, in 2006, and people had laughed or felt bitter. But the rascal is not foolish: the 4000 euro threshold then concerned, and still today, at the very most 10% of…