Paris: The French government is set to rush tax cuts and a rise in the minimum wage through parliament in a bid to end the “yellow vest” protests which appear to be waning after a month of disruption.
The measures announced a week ago by President Emmanuel Macron will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and put to the National Assembly and the Senate for votes before Christmas, officials said.
But in the meantime, the protesters must dismantle their road blocks, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Monday, warning that “we can’t continue to paralyse the French economy.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has acknowledged that the concessions, worth some 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion), would mean France will breach the public deficit cap of 3 per cent of gross domestic product set by EU rules.
“We accept that there will be a small increase in the deficit because of more rapid tax reductions,” Philippe said in an interview in the financial newspaper Les Echos on Monday.
“But we are careful with government spending, and we are taking a series of measures touching on businesses and spending worth some four billion euros. That should allow us to hold the deficit at about 3.2 per cent for 2019,” he added.
A planned reduction in the corporate income tax rate will be restricted next year to companies with a turnover of less than 250 million euros. France repeatedly failed to keep its budget deficit under 3 per cent until 2017, and the deficit for next year was originally forecast to be 2.8 per cent of GDP.
“We have made mistakes. We haven’t listened enough to the French people,” Philippe also said, speaking of the month-long grassroot “yellow vest” movement that has sparked nation-wide demonstrations, along with traffic blockades and destruction of motorway toll booths.
The Vinci motorway company, which operates some 4,400 kilometres of roads, on Monday said damage had cost it “tens of millions of euros”, with at least six buildings torched, 15 toll stations destroyed, and 33 vehicles wrecked.
Pre-Christmas sales have also been badly hit with the National Council of Commercial Centres reporting a drop of two billion euros in shopping, with businesses unlikely to make up the shortfall by December 25. — AFP
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