Paris. 13 December. REPORT.AZ/ Member of French National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee Jérôme Lambert commented on measures stated by the French President Emmanuel Macron in relation to the Yellow Vests protests, Report’s Western bureau informs.
"These measures are, in fact, not negative. But who will finance them? The wealthy part of the French population is unwilling to fund the measures stated by French President Emmanuel Macron. Gifts, taxes applied to only 0.1% of population have remained unchanged since Macron was elected a President. In view of this, we can say that only the poor and medium section of the population will have to pay these funds. Thus, France may run into more debt. An almost 3-percent deficit may increase even more. We know well that the debt must be repaid. But Macron does not want to touch the benefits granted to the wealthy people. We would be right if we call this policy hypocritical. Because the concessions given to the poor and medium section of the population will be paid by themselves, not by the wealthy people," the MP said.
According to him, these measures are also incomplete: "The $100-increase in the incomes of those working for minimum salary does not mean a real growth. It rather means the reduction in membership fees. This means that we empty the public social insurance. Money used for public social insurance will be redirected to salary payments to workers. But how will the situation with the public social insurance evolve? We will see it in the coming future. As for social benefits of the pensioners, you know that Macron has reduced CSG not for the poorest people, but for poor people. Aged people, who get more than EUR 1,200 in pensions and live alone, aged couples, whose pensions exceed EUR 2,000 used to pay this membership fee. From now on, this fee will be paid only by aged couples and those whose pensions exceed EUR 2,000. It should be taken into account that most of elderly people are couples. So, it means that this measure concerns a small part of the population. This is not a great revolution in itself. EUR 2,000 for a couple is not a great amount of money. French people are today exchanging opinions on these measures. I think that this social movement will continue in France. People realized that measures taken for them are insignificant and injustice will continue. The French President demonstrated once more that he does not want to get back the concessions he granted to the wealthy people," Lambert said.