By Pat Buchanan
When Socialist President Francois
Hollande took office, he swiftly made good on his pledge to raise the top tax
rate on Frenchmen who earn a million euros a year -- to 75 percent.
The regime would now confiscate three of
four dollars that the most successful Frenchmen earned. Paris also imposes a
wealth tax on assets worth more than $1.7 million.
This broke it for Gerard Depardieu, the
famed actor and bon vivant who has performed in scores of films in such roles
as Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" and Cyrano de Bergerac.
Depardieu put his Paris mansion up for
sale, crossed the border into the Belgian village of Nechin, gave up his French
passport and is renouncing his French citizenship. A tiny community of French
already reside in Nechin, a kilometer beyond the reach of Hollande's tax
police.
Depardieu says that this past year 85
percent of all he earned went for taxes. Over a 45-year career, he contends,
almost $200 million in income has been taxed away by the French government.
"I don't like the rich,"
Hollande has said.
The sentiment is reciprocated. One
French radio station claims that 5,000 French citizens have fled since he took
office.
Hollande's regime, writes Edward Cody of
The Washington Post, has all but declared Depardieu a traitor. Labor Minister
Michel Sapin calls him an example of "personal degradation." Culture
Minister Aurelie Filippetti charges him with "deserting the battlefield in
a war against…
Source: Town Hall
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