French press review 25 September 2018

French commentators brand 2019 Finance Bill as nothing more than chocolate offered to struggling families.

The commentators are harping about the 2019 budget presented in Parliament on Monday.

Le Parisien says the main pillar in President Macron's second Finance bill combines 19 billion euros of tax cuts for businesses and six billion euros in tax relief for individuals, including a gradual end to an annual housing tax.

This as he struggles to deliver more jobs and higher growth forecast to reach an uptick of just 1.7 percent next year short of his government’s projections last year.

La Voix du Nord welcomes substantial efforts are being made to get France on solid financial footing such as increasing the purchasing power of the French. These it says range from lowering the council tax, scrapping employee contributions to tax-exemptions on overtime work.

However, the newspaper argues that it will take a long time to reduce the effects of some measures he introduced during his first months in office, such the tax breaks Macron offered top earners, even as he shaved pensions and welfare benefits.

According to the regional publication, Macron's decision to hike taxes on fuel and cigarettes and to shed 4,100 more public sector jobs in 2019 will render any measures which may impact positively on the lives of French invisible.

Moreso, La Voix du Nord also explains that patience is wearing thin for many, as unemployment has barely budged since Macron's election in May 2017, standing at 9.1 percent.

According to Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, when the State speaks of giving back purchasing power to taxpayers, it automatically puts its power of seduction to test.

The paper explains that this is why only 29 percent of the French are satisfied with Macron's leadership, according to a ViaVoice poll published on Sunday. It also highlights another survey published last week which found out that only 19 percent of French people held a positive view of his record.

The secret of a winning economic policy lies in setting targets and implementing them. So say's Le Figaro, which congratulates President Macron for restoring the dignity of entrepreneurship and hard work. 

The conservative publication praises President Macron for breaking with the culture of calamitous and insincere budgets denounced by the State Accounts' Court during President Francois Hollande's time in office.

Les Echos also commends President Macron for the free-market touch he injected in his budget during his two years in office without disavowing his convictions.

For the economic publication, there is good reason to be delighted about the coherence of his economic policy pegged on the pillars of encouraging the spirit of enterprise, through a full year of tax cuts for businesses.

According to L'Humanité, it is now clear to everyone that the rich have received more than enough of their share through the repeal of the wealth tax, as well as the capital gains flat-rate tax.

The Communist daily say that now ought to be the time for the rest of France.

But as it observes, unfortunately the only things it has heard so far apart from the 6 billion euros of tax relief for individuals are trivial measures at a time of rising petrol prices, of reduced employer contributions, lowering of another third of the property tax, the freezing of family allowances, pensions and the rest.

According to L'Humanité what President Macron's Budget Minister took for ordinary citizens, when he appeared before the Finance commission was nothing more than chocolate.