AFP — Leading French candidate vows 75 percent tax on super rich

The Socialist tipped to become France’s next president took aim at the wealthy Tuesday with plans to slap a 75 percent tax rate on top earners.

Francois Hollande said it was simply a case of “patriotism to accept to pay extra tax to get the country back on its feet again” and reverse the policies of President Nicolas Sarkozy that he said favoured the rich.

“It is sending out a signal, a message of social cohesion,” he said during a tour of France’s annual agricultural fair in Paris.

Taxing the rich has become a hot issue in an election campaign marked by worry over the economic crisis and rising unemployment, which now stands at nearly three million.

Hollande, who opinion polls consistently put ahead of Sarkozy in the race to win the presidential elections in April and May, unveiled the 75 percent tax rate plan late Monday on a television show.

“I have seen the considerable progression of the pay of the CAC 40 (benchmark French stock market index) bosses. Two million euros (a year) on average. How can we accept that?” he asked.Hollande said he would slap the tax rate on all French people who earned more than a million euros ($1.3 million) a year. He had earlier said he wanted to impose a rate of 45 percent on incomes above 150,000 euros a year.

Leading French candidate vows 75 percent tax on super rich By Agence France-Presse