PARIS: French lawmakers debating the government's proposed budget for next year on Saturday appeared likely to delay discussion of a wealth tax pushed by the left until next week.
France is under pressure to pass a spending bill by an end-of-year deadline to rein in its deficit and soaring debt, but a political deadlock has hampered efforts.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who has promised not to use a parliamentary tool employed by previous governments to force through unpopular measures, is under pressure from both the left and the right.
Lecornu, the country's third prime minister in a little over a year, has promised to get the job done after the legislature ousted his two predecessors over cost-cutting measures.
The right pushed through some of its measures Saturday evening, including eliminating taxes on overtime.
The left is still waiting to put its plan for a tax on the super-rich to the vote.
Lecornu himself survived a confidence vote earlier this month by agreeing to suspend a deeply unpopular pensions reform under pressure from the Socialists.
But the Socialists, a swing group in parliament, have also demanded a tax on the uber-wealthy, without which they have threatened to topple his government.
They initially requested a levy, named after French economist Gabriel Zucman, who hoped to raise around 20 billion euros ($27 billion) per year from just 1,800 wealthy households.
The Zucman tax
Zucman proposed that people with at least 100 million euros in assets pay a minimum tax of 2% on that wealth.
But the far right and Lecornu's government are against taxing professional assets, which this levy would target.
The government, instead, wants to tax wealth management holdings with at least 5 million euros in assets.
The Socialists have now suggested a minimum 3% tax on assets of 10 million euros or more, while excluding family and "innovative" businesses, in a concession to the government.
But in an interview due out Sunday in the Tribune Dimanche, however, Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin said it was out "of the question ... to penalise entrepreneurs and to undermine our production capacity by taxing professional goods".
The Socialists' proposal was due for debate in parliament on Saturday, but now appears to have been pushed back to next week.
Zucman himself has warned the Socialists not to compromise on his original proposal.
Creating a tax "riddled with loopholes, offering opportunities for evasion ... is condemning oneself to failure", he told France Inter radio.
The radical left France Unbowed (LFI) party seized on his comments to criticise the Socialists.
"There you have it," wrote Eric Coquerel, president of the Finance Committee, on X.
"Everything has been said by Zucman himself about the Zucman light taxes on wealth proposed by the Socialist group in hopes of reaching a compromise with the government."
France has been mired in political deadlock since President Emmanuel Macron last year called for snap parliamentary elections, hoping to cement his power.
His centrist bloc instead lost its majority, the far right gained seats, and the parliament ended up divided.
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