According to a report by the NGO Oxfam published on Monday, the coronavirus crisis has reinforced inequalities.

Billionaires have seen their fortunes increase, while fragile people have fallen into precariousness.

On Europe 1 Cécile Duflot, general manager of the NGO, also argues that new profiles of precarious people have appeared. 

INTERVIEW

The coronavirus health crisis has widened inequalities, according to a report by the NGO Oxfam published on Monday.

According to this document entitled "the virus of inequalities", "the 1,000 richest people in the world have regained their pre-pandemic level of wealth in just nine months while it could take more than ten years for the poorest people. poorer to recover from the economic impacts ".

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French billionaires richer than before the crisis

Globally, billionaires have even seen their fortunes increase by $ 3.9 trillion between March 18 and December 31, 2020, according to the NGO, which relies in particular on data from Forbes and Credit Suisse.

In France, billionaires - including Bernard Arnault, third largest fortune in the world behind Americans Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk - have "earned nearly 175 billion euros" over the same period, "exceeding their level of wealth before the crisis" .

This is the third strongest increase, after the United States and China. 

Faced with this surge in inequalities, Oxfam is taking up the proposals of economists Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman in favor of an increase in taxes for the richest.

"The corona crisis must mark a turning point in the taxation of the richest people and companies. It offers us the opportunity to finally establish a fair tax system, to put an end to the race to the bottom and to initiate a race to the bottom. This can take the form of an increase in wealth tax, taxes on financial transactions and measures to eradicate tax evasion, "the report notes.

A new typical profile among the precarious

The NGO cites Argentina as an example, which in December adopted a law instituting an extraordinary tax on large fortunes, likely to bring in some $ 3 billion, to finance the fight against the effects of Covid-19.

A model that Cécile Duflot seems to want to follow. 

Invited from Europe Evening, Monday, the Executive Director of Oxfam France was concerned about the repercussions of the health crisis, especially on the new precarious.

"They are younger, have more complicated employment situations," she says. 

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Praising the partial unemployment scheme which "has avoided tipping tens of thousands of people into precariousness", Cécile Duflot points out, however, "all those who escape it, in particular young people and students who are living in a dramatic situation".

Without forgetting that the crisis has been particularly virulent with women, according to the Executive Director of Oxfam, "since they mostly hold part-time, precarious jobs, and it is often they who are responsible for single-parent families".