The operation was obviously perfectly orchestrated. The day after Emmanuel Macron's speech, in which the President of the Republic promised "strong announcements, from May", against social and tax fraud, Bruno Le Maire, Gabriel Attal and Gérald Darmanin – respectively Ministers of the Economy, Public Accounts and the Interior – sounded the charge, Tuesday, April 18, against fraudsters.
While tax evasion was mentioned, the main focus was on social fraud. "For those who receive the RSA, if they are in a path of integration, if they show effort, they must be helped. But if they do not wish to return to work, it is normal that we have sanctions against them, "said Gérald Darmanin on LCI, taking up the classic theme dear to the right-wing electorate of the hunt for "assisted".
🔴🗣️ "For those who receive the RSA, if they are in a path of integration, if they show effort, we must help them, but if they do not wish to return to work, it is normal that we have sanctions against them": @GDarmanin to @agindre. pic.twitter.com/s0QPx2HNOa
— LCI (@LCI) April 18, 2023
At the same time, Bruno Le Maire went even further by linking social fraud and immigration. "Our compatriots, legitimately, are fed up with fraud. They are fed up with seeing people who can receive aid (...), send them back to the Maghreb or elsewhere when they are not entitled to it. It's not made for that the social model, "he said on BFMTV.
🎙 "The social model is made to protect the poorest, certainly not to send money illegally abroad."
Bruno Le Maire answers questions from Apolline de Malherbe in the #FaceAFace pic.twitter.com/F2XimOivpf
— RMC (@RMCInfo) April 18, 2023
For this first of "100 days of appeasement, unity, ambition and action in the service of France" promised by Emmanuel Macron on April 17, the government has therefore worked, to forget the pension reform, to target social fraudsters, and in particular foreigners. A strategy strongly denounced by the left.
The leader of the Unsubmissive France (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, rebelled on Twitter. "Dear Muslim compatriots or natives like me from the Maghreb, prepare yourselves. To distract the government announces through the voice of Bruno Le Maire a new campaign to point the finger at you. Cold blood," he wrote.
>> READ ALSO: Despite "the anger" of the French, Emmanuel Macron gives himself 100 days to revive
"You will take a small dose of racism to start appeasement," tweeted Europe Ecology-Greens (EELV) MP Sandrine Rousseau.
"The far right dangerously fills the government vacuum," lamented for his part the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, regretting that the government mobilizes "racist prejudices to avoid recalling that social fraud is essentially the fact of employers and that tax fraud is incommensurate".
Tax fraud much more important than social fraud
In fact, all serious estimates, including those established by the Court of Auditors, the Central Agency of Social Security Organizations (Acoss) and the National Family Allowances Fund (CNAF), concerning fraud are unanimous: tax fraud far exceeds social fraud.
"Fraud in social benefits would represent, according to the Court of Auditors, between 1 and 3 billion euros, employer fraud in social contributions about 20 billion euros, still according to the Court of Auditors and about 6 to 8 billion euros according to Social Security, and tax fraud of 80 to 100 billion euros," says Vincent Drezet, spokesperson of the Attac association and former national secretary of the National Unified Tax Union (SNUI).
It is more than useful to remember that tax fraud is more than 10 times higher than social contribution fraud (employer fraud) and 10 to 100 times higher than social fraud.
Yet the two are put on an equal footing by @GabrielAttal & @BrunoLeMaire. pic.twitter.com/2wUP1iPdGW
— Maxime Combes (@MaximCombes) April 18, 2023
However, it is on social fraud that the political discourse insists. "A constant for 25 years," explains Vincent Dubois, professor of sociology and political science at the University of Strasbourg, author of the book "Controlling the assisted, genesis and uses of a watchword" (ed. Raisons d'Agir, 2021).
"Even if the accusation against the unemployed suspected of not looking for work has always existed, there was a very clear inflection in the mid-1990s, when Prime Minister Alain Juppé commissioned the first parliamentary report on the abusive practices of recipients of social benefits and health," explains Vincent Dubois. "From there, the theme of social fraud is permanently put on the political and media agenda, with in particular the very strong moment that is Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year term, during which 'welfare' and 'value work' are constantly opposed."
>> READ ALSO: By demonizing the left, Emmanuel Macron plays "a dangerous game"?
This is not the first time that Emmanuel Macron has imprinted this rhetoric. His two reforms of unemployment insurance, in particular, were based on the idea that some of the unemployed are not doing what is necessary to find a job. And his 2022 presidential campaign was marked by his proposal for a "conditioned" RSA – put back on the workbench Monday night subtly by the president and unceremoniously Tuesday morning by Gérald Darmanin.
"Behind the figure of the fraudster, there is that of the immigrant who abuses"
Meanwhile, the departments of the Ministry of Public Accounts responsible for tax audits continue to see their workforce melt like snow in the sun. "A little less than 10,000 agents are now working on tax audits, whether they are done on documents or on site. That's between 3,000 and 4,000 fewer officers than a dozen years ago. The administration is less and less equipped to cope," regrets Vincent Drezet.
Gabriel Attal, however, said Tuesday morning on France Inter that he would present "in the coming weeks" a plan to fight fraud "with strong measures", such as a doubling of the staff of the Judicial Investigation Service of Finance (SEJF). Currently composed of 266 investigators, according to the Customs website, the SEJF had participated in mass searches in March in banks in France suspected of tax fraud. Business-to-business e-invoicing, due to start in 2024, should also help fight VAT fraud.
.@GabrielAttal promises "strong measures to fight against social fraud and tax fraud" in France.
The Minister of Public Accounts promises a plan presented in the coming weeks. #le7930inter pic.twitter.com/YmLqzNsIVH
— France Inter (@franceinter) April 18, 2023
Announcements overshadowed by Bruno Le Maire's comments on foreign fraudsters. Especially since the coming weeks will also be marked by the examination in Parliament of the immigration bill.
"There is clearly a reinvestment of this theme of fraud, but still with something new since the government now explicitly assimilates the issue of fraud to social benefits to the issue of immigration, says Vincent Dubois. This refers to an imaginary: behind the figure of the fraudster, there is that of the immigrant who abuses, or even the polygamous immigrant or the immigrant who would use the RSA to finance Islamist terrorism."
A diversionary strategy that recalls the end of the great national debate, when Emmanuel Macron had responded to the "fiscal, territorial and social injustice" expressed according to him by the Yellow Vests by proposing an annual debate in Parliament on migration policy, an overhaul of the Schengen area and pointing to "a political Islam that wants to secede from our Republic". Failing to appease the French, the right and the extreme right, once again, will appreciate.
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