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Francois Hollande, the incoming Socialist President of France, announced today that he wanted to raise the top marginal tax rate to 75% from the current 50%. Taxes on folks making 150K euros or more, say $90K US, would go up to 45%. The investor class press is already squealing like the stuck pigs that they are:
Poor babies. The job creators are being persecuted! Call out the National Guard!
Oh, yeah, Hollande gives them their orders now. Ruh-ro! Move your money out of France quick! How patriotic. Even though the number of French folks actually doing so according to Bloomberg appears to be very small to me.
OTOH, the Trots over at the World Socialist Web Site don’t trust Hollande as far as my cat could throw him:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/fran-m09.shtml
They say he will bail out the French and other banks at the behest of the Obama Administration and at the expense of the French working class. That he is basically the French Obama, a Trojan Horse of the Corporate Class.
I do not know what to believe. Maybe Hollande himself isn’t sure what the hell he is going to do. As one French leader, and for the life of me I can’t remember who, once said, “Every French leader lives under the shadow of the guillotine,” meaning all French politicians know in their guts that the French people are perfectly capable of lopping their heads’ off if they sufficiently piss them off.
Unlike our American politicians.
I don’t know what Hollande and his Socialists will do. One thing’s for sure. Both Bloomberg and the WSWS can’t both be right about him. I suppose we must wait for time to provide the answer.
Insight and information from the FDL community is most welcome.
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According to Wikipedia the French Socialist Party is center left. And Hollande’ has been knocking around in it since the days of François Mitterrand. Here is what Mitterrand did,
Ohio Barbarian–
Can’t say that I know that much about French politics, but here’s what Antoine (who was in France for two weeks this Spring) says in a recent post here at FDL:
“Back in May, during a two-week trip to France, I watched Sarkozy, Le Pen, Hollande, and Jean-luc Melenchon on French TV. Le Pen is represents the French version of the Tea Party, Hollande is, in my opinion, a French Obama, and Melenchon, albeit better doesn’t get it.
The French intellectuals I spoke to agreed with me. Big money politics has doomed France, the way it has doomed the U.S.
It’s not about taxing the rich, it’s about eliminating the parasitic corporate stranglehold on the economy – deregulation, outsourcing, and privatization.”
This was his (or her) comment in Phoenix Woman’s diary entitled “Greece, France Send Austerity Jackals Packing.”
That is pretty much in keeping with a Chris Hedges’ piece I read the other day at Truthdig.
Recommended.
Blue
Here’s an opinion from Europe.
When queried, Bill Black, indicated that Hollande has neo-liberal economic advisors.
Just remember, all governments lie.
I’m calling it “French Obama.”
His first move after the election was to make a reassuring phone call to Angela Merkel. A move straight out of the Obama playbook.
Shortly after Obama was elected, he went overseas, first for his famous Cairo speech, then to campaign for the European conservatives including Merkel and Sarkozy, who both did well in the elections.
When Socialist Straus-Kahn of the IMF was in the US, he was targeted and taken down by sexual means, just as he was in line to gain a leadership position in Europe by winning the election that just happened. (As has been noted here before, Obama’s opponents and FBI targets often/usually have sexual details made public.)
The fact that Obama has worked so hard to stop French Socialists gives me some hope. He has uses the word Socialist as an insult, as if he’s trying to impress Rush Limbo.
Shortly after Obama was elected, he went overseas, first for his famous Cairo speech, then to campaign for the European conservatives including Merkel and Sarkozy, who both did well in the elections.
When Socialist Straus-Kahn of the IMF was in the US, he was targeted and taken down by sexual means, just as he was in line to gain a leadership position in Europe by winning the election that just happened. (As has been noted here before, Obama’s opponents and FBI targets often/usually have sexual details made public.)
The fact that Obama has worked so hard to stop French Socialists gives me some hope. He uses the word Socialist as an insult, as if he’s trying to impress Rush Limbo.
“’Every French leader lives under the shadow of the guillotine,’ meaning all French politicians know in their guts that the French people are perfectly capable of lopping their heads’ off if they sufficiently piss them off.”
What about the time enough of the Colonists told their King to take a Royal powder?
The American tradition is not to hang a guillotine over the mantle.
Strauss-Kahn was not “targeted” for anything. There’s a brand new rape charge against Strauss-Kahn.
Strauss-Kahn is sexual predator. It seems France seems to have been revealed as a culture has a significant problems dealing with confronting the idea of sexual predators in a culture that’s more generally permissive. The minute Strauss-Kahn stepped off French soil, Strass-Kahn started leaving a trail of women behind him screaming rape.
Men like this think it’s a compliment
You cannot really compare the two. In this country it was the business man and land owners and such against the king and they were NOT starving.
Where in in Europe it was the commoners against the businessmen and land owners and the king. And the commoners WERE starving.
Very different motivations and concerns.
Thanks for the post, which mirrors my own thoughts and questions about the recent election in France. I have no idea, as my grasp of French politics is relatively superficial.
If, in fact, Hollande’s advisors (or whatever) are truly NeoLiberal, then that’s the answer: a French Obama. I, too, noted that one of the first things Hollande did was to call Merkel.
So, my *bet* is that we’re back to the territory of: Meet the new boss… same as the old boss…
I’d love to be pleasantly surprised about being wrong, but I won’t hold my breath that Hollande’ll do much for the 99%.