At the end of next week, “we will know whether we will dissolve or not,” the head of the Socialists, Olivier Faure, warned on Sunday in LCI, specifying that the rejection of the Zucman tax, or a modified version of this tax in the hemicycle, would be a “casus belli.”
While the Assembly has begun debating the revenue part of the 2026 budget, the PS first secretary expects concessions from the government on tax justice in the coming days. If they did not intervene, Sébastien Lecornu would be exposed to a motion of censure by the socialists, with a good chance of succeeding and precipitating a new dissolution.
Olivier Faure believes, therefore, that “at the end of this week (next), we will know if we are going to dissolve or not.” “If we go there (…), “we can consider that in the month of November there will be legislative elections,” said Faure.
“The French will decide”
The deputy for Seine and Marne specified that he will defend in the chamber “the Zucman tax”, which provides for a minimum tax of 2% on assets from 100 million euros, because “it is the best way to avoid what we call tax optimization.”
But “if by chance in the chamber we cannot advance with this Zucman tax, we will look for alternative amendments,” he insisted. The socialist group in the Assembly proposes in an amendment to introduce a minimum tax of 3% on high assets, from 10 million euros, excluding innovative and family businesses.
But if Sébastien Lecornu and his deputies do not finally approve this modified tax “which, however, introduces professional assets into the tax base”, “of course, it will be a casus belli”, he threatened.
“If we do not get the Zucman tax adopted and we do not even manage to recover between 5 and 7 billion of the high net worth (which the modified version would provide, ed.)”, the leader of the socialists does not see “very well how we could find that return that we need to save the working classes and the middle classes”, and which he estimates “between 15 and 20 billion”.
If the Macronists and Republicans “do not understand that these efforts are essential to move forward, the French will decide and we will explain to them that they preferred to block France because they wanted to protect some billionaires,” he insisted.
But this debate should be postponed until the end of the week, since the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, announced on Saturday afternoon in the chamber that, when debates resumed on Monday, some articles would be examined as a priority, de facto postponing the examination of the Zucman tax.
Source: BFM TV
