Romain Rouillard
modified to
7:51 p.m., August 28, 2022
Guest of Jeanne Baron on Europe 1 this Sunday, Philippe Martinez, the general secretary of the CGT, spoke about his proposals to enhance purchasing power in France. He notably insisted on the taxation of superprofits and denounced the dividends paid to shareholders, which he considers too high.
How to improve the purchasing power of the French? This is the question that Philippe Martinez, the boss of the CGT, tried to answer at the microphone of Jeanne Baron on Europe 1 on Sunday evening. He also attacked the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron who had alerted to “the end of abundance” during the last Council of Ministers. “The speech of the President of the Republic is completely offbeat, it is even insolent vis-à-vis all those who cannot make ends meet. (…) He is always in the short sentence and in disdain”, he asserted before unveiling proposals to relieve the wallet of the French.
“Fighting the High Cost of Living”
“The first thing is to fight against the high cost of living and, for example, lower the VAT which is a very unfair tax. (…) The second thing is to tax profits. It is not not normal that in equal proportion, the middle class, as they say, pays more taxes than Amazon or groups like Total”, launched Philippe Martinez. On Saturday, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, did not rule out a possible taxation of “superprofits”.
Increase the minimum wage
The CGT boss then urged the executive to “increase the minimum wage”. And to add “it must be ensured that, when the SMIC increases in the professional branches, the minima of branch also increase. There should be automaticity since it is the law” before calling for “solidarity between the companies”. “I understand the difficulties of certain VSEs and SMEs, but in general, they depend on a large group. We must therefore reduce payment times, perhaps increase the cost of labor in VSEs and SMEs, so that that large groups also contribute to the increase in wages in small companies”.
Regularly targeting these large groups – “those who make a lot of money on the misery of others” – the leader of the CGT finally felt that the government was not doing enough to improve wages. “The question of salaries is taboo for the President of the Republic”, he asserted, relying on this famous council of ministers during which Emmanuel Macron “did not talk about salaries”.
Source: Europe1
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