French business has strongly attacked the new Socialist government’s plans to raise taxes and impose other restrictions on employers, warning that it risked isolating the country and stalling investment at a time when the economy was in “survival mode”.
The outburst came as President Francois Hollande’s team rebuffed a declaration by David Cameron, the British prime minister, that he would “roll out the red carpet” to welcome French businesses fleeing the new regime.
The emergence of plans to impose an extra tax on company dividends added to concern among business leaders already angered by proposals to raise the marginal tax rate to 75 per cent on incomes above €1m and to toughen legislation inhibiting the ability of companies to fire workers and close factories.