Against the advice of the government, the deputies adopted on Friday October 25 in the hemicycle an LFI amendment to the state budget to create a new tax on the wealth of billionaires, after having rejected attempts to reinstate the ISF. This new tax would tax 2% of the upper fraction of a household’s assets which exceeds one billion euros. To hope to enter into force, the measure will however have to survive the parliamentary shuttle and a possible recourse to 49.3.
“In this budget, we are asking for efforts for almost everyone on almost everything”, but not “on the heritage of the richest”, argued LFI deputy Aurélien Le Coq. This new tax would “take 13 billion euros from the assets of the fellow citizens concerned”, criticized Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin. “It is quite simply a tax which, I think, does not exist in any other country,” he added, before warning: “the best way to scare away those who can invest in our country is ‘is exactly that one.’
“An argument that is difficult to hear for 95% of our fellow citizens,” replied the president of the Finance Committee Eric Coquerel (LFI). “The people we are talking about, in 20 years, have accumulated a thousand billion more in wealth,” he added, criticizing the “blackmail at the start”. The RN challenged the elected representatives of the central bloc, accusing them of not having come in sufficient numbers to the hemicycle to reject the amendment.
No restoration of the ISF
Shortly before, the New Popular Front and the RN had passed the responsibility to each other for the failure to reestablish the ISF. “The contribution to the most fortunate in this 2025 budget is necessary”, observed Laurent Saint-Martin but must remain “targeted, temporary and exceptional”, he argued.
The NFP proposed creating a “climate ISF” which would take into account the carbon footprint of heritage, and which would have brought in 15 billion euros, according to ecologist Eva Sas. A proposal rejected by the government coalition, as well as by the RN. Conversely, an RN amendment which aimed to transform the current real estate wealth tax (IFI) into a financial wealth tax (IFF), from which the main residence would be excluded, was rejected by the government’s supporters and the LEFT.
The two opposition blocs accused each other of having played into the hands of the government. “Shameful! The RN votes with the macronie against all the amendments for the return and strengthening of the wealth tax,” the LFI sur X group was indignant. “The left and the macronists united to refuse a wealth tax RN on financial fortune!”, criticized Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN) in return.