French Clamor for Tax Cut in Poll on Macron’s Next Steps

(Bloomberg) -- A decrease in income tax is favored by 82 percent of French people, according to a poll that asked respondents how President Emmanuel Macron should react to the Yellow Vest protest movement.

Scrapping privatizations, including of Paris airports operator ADP, was supported by 62 percent 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 France’s television license fee each garnered at least four-fifths support.

France is waiting for 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 on 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 percent want Macron to change his economic and social policies, compared with 78 percent in November.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Regan in Paris at jregan65@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Geraldine Amiel at gamiel@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka

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