Taxation of second-hand books: Bayrou says he “disagrees” with Macron

The president of MoDem, François Bayrou, said he “disagreed” on Sunday with Emmanuel Macron's idea of ​​setting up a “contribution” on the second-hand book market. “It is rare that I disagree with the President of the Republic, but here, I disagree,” François Bayrou said on Radio J.

Emmanuel Macron pleaded Friday for the establishment of a “contribution that can help protect the single price” of the book, without further details, during a visit to the Paris Book Festival. François Bayrou also said he was firmly opposed to the idea of ​​the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, of transferring part of social contributions to VAT. “It’s absurd,” said François Bayrou, seeing it as an “easy solution” when VAT is a “tax on the poor”.

François Bayrou also distanced himself from the unemployment insurance reform put on the table by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal. “There are a number of friends of mine who say it's not true that it's a widespread choice not to work to take advantage of the benefits. That’s not what unemployment in France is,” he explained. “Unemployment in France is people who would like to work but who cannot find employment or what they would imagine to be the scale of what they are capable of doing and with the reward that must go with it,” he continued.

The centrist party leader reaffirmed his desire for institutional reform before the end of the five-year term, with the implementation of proportional representation for legislative elections. In this regard, he considered that the proposal from the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, aimed at establishing a proportional share in the most populous departments, is “not adapted to the situation”.