French clamour for tax cut: poll

Paris

A DECREASE in income tax is favoured by 82 per cent of the French, according to a poll that asked respondents how President Emmanuel Macron should respond to the Yellow Vest protest movement.

Scrapping privatisations, including that of Paris airports operator ADP, was supported by 62 per cent of those surveyed in the Ifop poll for Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. Measures such as linking low-end pensions to inflation, making it obligatory to have doctors in rural areas and scrapping French television licence fee each garnered at least four-fifths support.

France is waiting for Mr Macron to set out conclusions after a 10-week series of debates with citizens, which was designed to take the heat out of the protests. Some 31,000 Yellow Vests turned out across France last Saturday for a 22nd consecutive weekend.

The April 12-13 poll of 972 adults has a margin of error of as much as 3.1 percentage points.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Monday, after he was presented with a study outlining the findings of the debate, that the "clear message is that taxes must fall and fall fast". The poll also said that 82 per cent want Mr Macron to change his economic and social policies, compared with 78 per cent in November. BLOOMBERG