Socialists Denounce Gérard Depardieu for Leaving France
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — Gérard Depardieu, one of France’s best-known actors, has been accused by the country’s Socialist government of lacking patriotism after he moved to Belgium apparently in a bid to avoid the taxes for which France is also renowned. Mr. Depardieu’s departure for Néchin, a village just over the border, has drawn mockery and outrage from politicians and the news media at a time of economic belt-tightening, stagnating growth and rising taxes. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault weighed in, calling Mr. Depardieu’s choice “rather pathetic.” “He’s a great star, everyone loves him as an artist,” Mr. Ayrault told the France 2 television channel on Wednesday, but “to pay a tax is an act of solidarity, a patriotic act.” Mr. Depardieu, 63, is among a handful of celebrities and wealthy business executives who have left France since the May election of President François Hollande, a Socialist. To reduce the budget deficit and the country’s debt, Mr. Hollande has put in place a 75 percent marginal tax rate for incomes above 1 million euros, or $1.3 million — a largely symbolic measure that will affect only a few thousand individuals, he has said — and has announced additional taxes that are expected to raise 20 billion euros next year. While Mr. Depardieu has not commented publicly about what led to his move, it is widely suspected that he was attracted more by the Belgian tax code than, say, the weather. (Belgium, wedged between France and the Netherlands, is less sunny and warm than soggy and gray.) Residents there pay no wealth tax and no capital gains tax on stock sales. In France, residents are required to pay a 0.25 percent wealth tax on assets valued at more than 1.3 million euros; those with more than 3 million euros in assets pay twice that. Mr. Depardieu will by no means be the only Frenchman in Néchin, where he has reportedly bought a home. Néchin’s mayor, Daniel Senesael, told the French news media that 27 percent of residents are French. Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chief executive of the luxury group LVMH, was pilloried in the news media in September when it was revealed that he had requested Belgian citizenship. Mr. Arnault said the request was not for tax purposes, but the left-leaning newspaper Libération featured a front-page headline that read, in polite translation, “Beat it, rich jerk!” (LVMH promptly pulled its advertising from the newspaper and Mr. Arnault filed a lawsuit charging the paper with public insult.) On Tuesday, the newspaper featured Mr. Depardieu on its front page, along with an editorial deploring his “absence of moral sense” and insisting that the flight of the rich represents “a danger for democracy and solidarity.” For months there have been reports of wealthy French people taking up residence outside the country, particularly in London, whose mayor, Boris Johnson, has called Mr. Hollande’s tax plan “tyranny.” French celebrities have left the country for tax reasons for years, though, and it is not altogether clear how politicians and the news media select the ones they vilify, or how countries choose who among them is worthy of citizenship. The singer Johnny Hallyday, a major French star whose popularity has lasted for decades, has been based in Switzerland for years and once requested Belgian citizenship. He still plays to sellout crowds in France. The actor Alain Delon lives in Switzerland as well, but serves in the nation of his birth as the head of the jury for the Miss France competition. Appearing on a popular television talk show this week, Mr. Delon was asked for an assessment of Mr. Depardieu’s choice. He smiled and said, “Let’s be serious, I can’t allow myself to make a judgment.” Everyone laughed. |