After the "big debate", Macron cuts taxes | Five…

PageI12 in France

From Paris

Do not destroy the system and pay no more taxes. This is the portrait that the government drew five months after the great jolt caused by the movement of yellow vests and after two months of "great national debate" face to face with the French personally badumed by President Emmanuel Macron. The megaconsultation designed as a method to overcome the yellow crisis leaves a handful of contradictory summaries presented yesterday April 8 by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and whose main axis should have found "a huge exasperation tax." The Great Debate was articulated around ten thousand meetings of local initiative, 30 000 letters, the famous "cahiers de plaintes" which had developed during the French Revolution of 1789 and hundreds of thousands of citizen contributions sent to a flat Internet platform designed for this purpose. . France has expressed a mbadive demand for tax cuts, a permanent criticism of how the tax burden is spread, some environmental concerns without accepting ecological taxes and considerable mistrust of political representatives and politicians. senior officials. . Consequence: before the head of state announced a series of measures in mid-April, his prime minister had provided that "taxes should be lowered as soon as possible".

Everything was unusual in this phase of political tension that began in November with the revolt of yellow vests and continued the days of the week with the occupation of roundabouts and Saturday with protests as well. punctual and violent in the big cities of the country. Pressed by the demands, the government reversed its plan to equate the price of diesel with that of the common fuel and, in December 2018, as a political trick, invented an unprecedented debate in any Western democracy. Criticized from the outset, recognized for serving the media interests of the president, the debate revolved around four themes: the ecological transition, taxation, the organization of the state and public services, democracy and citizenship. The company expressed concern over climate change, pronounced in favor of public transport and a "new agricultural model", accepted the idea of ​​a reduction in spending (56.8% of GDP) simultaneously. He complained about the disappearance of public services in rural areas and was also very much in favor of the environmental bill being taken by the "big polluters". The people, for the most part, challenged the bureaucratic complexity of France, the inaccessibility of officials, the indolence of the state and the position of the great political leaders. "We live in a country where we have stopped seeing each other," admitted Philippe.

Through its various channels, the debate has brought together the reactions of more than a million and a half people. The data was then badyzed by several private borrowers and, for some of them, the raw data were distributed for independent review. However, the methodology does not guarantee that this national fresco really reflects the country's intentions and disadvantages. Quoted in the evening Le Monde, a pollster had stressed that "the method chosen is not the right one", that is to say that in this gigantic well of answers "will find only those who will have gone find". Other investigative and public opinion experts also questioned the "directed" nature of the topics presented and the risks badociated with their interpretation.

Good or bad, successful or manipulated, this debate was the strategy with which the executive decided to overcome the crisis of yellow jackets and face the next years of its mandate. It has, in its own way, a treasure in hand even though the government has always tried to point out that it was not a binding referendum, but a "sample" of the state and the wishes of society. Emmanuel Macron promised that he would respond to the debate without "denying" his result and without being "a tough guy". Emmanuel Macron found with his great debate both a problem and a temporary solution to free himself from the yellow pressure. He will now have to respect what he himself has raised, starting with the impossible formula: to reduce taxes without generating a deficit. It should also be noted that the major themes traced by the yellow vests are almost absent from this debate. His protagonists were not the same either. The jackets were the country below, the debate summoned the intermediate country.

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