In the spotlight: 200 billion euros

Audio 04:24

Euro bank notes.

Some French people have put money aside, a lot of money during this pandemic period.

(Illustrative image) Ina Fassbender AFP / Archivos

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

9 min

Publicity

In this period of pandemic, some French people have put money aside, a lot of money… " 

The additional savings windfall accumulated by the French could reach 130 billion euros over the whole of 2020, or more than the government's recovery plan (100 billion).

 “Figures put forward by the Banque de France, cited by

Les Echos

.

And in this year 2021, the French should still save around 70 billion ... That is a total of 200 billion between 2020 and 2021.

Suddenly, point

Les Echos

, " 

faced with the need to mobilize this savings of the French in favor of the recovery, several elected (left) evoke the question of an increase in taxation.

 "

Their motivation, notes the economic daily: “ 

this savings was mainly concentrated on the richest.

'20% of the wealthiest households have accumulated 70% of this windfall,

says PS deputy Thierry Cozic, quoted by the newspaper.

It's a double blow,

he continues:

it is also this population that has received the most tax gifts since 2017 '

.

"

No, retorts Valérie Plagnol, the president of the Cercle des Épargnants, “

'We must not consider the savings of the French as a pot to draw from.

According to her, if savers are also 'wait-and-see' with their savings, it is above all because of the impossibility of projecting themselves into the future '.

 "

Reorient investments towards SMEs?

No question of increasing taxes, adds

Le Figaro

… “ 

When the impecunious state rubs shoulders with prosperous savers, with us, the old demons immediately reappear.

Tax-obsessed did not wait for the end of the crisis to demand that we puncture these haves. 

"

However, wonders

Le Figaro

, “ 

how to get the money accumulated by the French back into the economic circuit?

(…) We must give credit to the government to rule out tax, to explore others,

thunders the newspaper.

Such as encouraging the French, for example, to redirect their investments towards companies, in particular SMEs, which lack financial capacity.

 "

Covid: towards localized measures?

Also on the front page is this question: will the Côte d'Azur be sealed off?

Visiting the Alpes-Maritimes on Saturday, where the health situation is very worrying, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, hinted that local confinement could be decreed.

Objective: to limit the spread of the English variant to the rest of the country.

Change of course, therefore, notes

Liberation

 : "

 the government, which seeks by all means to avoid generalized confinement, is now considering taking localized measures.

Three weeks ago, when he rejected the idea of ​​tightening the screw further, Emmanuel Macron knew he was making a risky bet.

He is now clearly walking on a wire. 

"

So what to expect on the French Riviera?

"

 A putting under bell only at the end of the week?"

Asks

Le Parisien.

'This would be a first in metropolitan France, recalls the professor of epidemiology Mahmoud Zureik.

The department would become a laboratory for the rest of the country, a life-size test to measure the effectiveness of the measure or its ineffectiveness.

Clearly, if it works on the Côte d'Azur, an application in areas in great tension could be considered: Moselle, Hauts-de-France, even Ile-de-France.

 "

Algeria: the anger is still there ...

Also in the newspapers, Algeria: the Hirak, the movement to contest power, has been going on for two years now ...

Indeed, “ 

this Monday, Algiers celebrates the second anniversary of the demonstration at the origin of Hirak, which had prompted President Bouteflika to resign.

His successor Abdelmadjid Tebboune is trying to coax a movement that rejects him: release of prisoners, dissolution of the Assembly, partial cabinet reshuffle…

No, exclaim

The Latest News from Alsace

, these are only " 

vain and pathetic attempts to seduce a badly elected president who is already at bay.

The government has therefore done everything to avoid this second anniversary, but it will have to resolve to do with it,

says the Alsatian daily.

Because despite the Covid crisis which emptied the streets on Friday, despite the repression, the anger is still there, the determination too.

And the failure of the constitutional referendum of November 1 last boycotted by the population showed the new head of state that if he wants to build, as he says, a 'new Algeria', he cannot do it without and even less against the people.

Those days, Les DNA conclude, are over. 

"

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