French celeb threatens to flee country if Hollande wins
“If Hollande wins the election, I'm leaving the country.” That’s what one tantruming French celebrity is threatening after Socialist candidate François Hollande suggested taxing millionaires 75% of their salaries earlier in his campaign.
Sixties icon Françoise Hardy (pictured right) told weekly magazine Le Point on Friday that if the Socialist candidate were to go ahead with his 75% tax on millionaires, she would be “living on the street”. Earning just 150,000 euros a year, she told the sympathetic (er, conservative) magazine that she wouldn’t be able to afford to pay her taxes… “I’ll have to sell my apartment. I’ll be on the street.” But before you send her an old tent and some tin foil, don’t panic – she’s come up with an excellent alternative. “I could see myself living in London or New York,” she muses. And by that, she means living in an apartment.
She's not the only celebrity to voice her disapproval over the idea, although others have been less melodramatic. A few days before Hardy’s desperate homeless appeal, French former heartthrob Patrick Bruel (centre right) gave a more convincing argument as to why 75% was a little over the top. “I’m more than happy to give back a large part of what I earn [to society],” he told French radio RTL. “But at 75%, a tax becomes more of a confiscation.” He then went on to dispel a controversial French myth: “It’s not dishonest to earn a fortune. Especially when we redistribute half of that fortune already.”
Even celebrities who support Hollande have chided him for his ambitious plan. Comedian Jamel Debbouze (bottom right), who gladly supports Hollande publicly, described the tax as “ridiculous” in magazine Les Inrockuptibles last week.
If the Robin-Hood-hopeful was planning to distance himself from his... ambitious idea, it’s too late now. It's already been dubbed… “La Taxe Hollande”.