The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

French newspaper to France's richest man: "Get lost, you rich bastard"

Libération has little sympathy for billionaire Bernard Arnault's complaints about the proposed 75 per cent tax rate.

By Daniel Trilling Published 10 September 2012 12:38

Liberation on Bernard Arnault: "Casse-toi, riche con!"

In response to the news that France's richest man has applied for Belgian nationality, the country's leading left-wing daily has declared: "get lost, you rich bastard!"*

The forthright headline, emblazoned across today's front page of Libération, is aimed at Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury fashion conglomerate LMVH. Arnault applied for Belgian nationality after the socialist president François Hollande proposed a new 75 per cent tax rate on earnings over one million euros. He denies he is trying to avoid tax, but Libération nonetheless condemns his decision as "a symbol of the arrogance of the wealthiest".

The headline is actually a play on a famous gaffe made by the former president, Nicholas Sarkozy, who muttered "casse-toi, pov' con" ("get lost, you poor bastard") at a member of the public who refused to shake his hand. The phrase subsequently became a taunt taken up by Sarkozy's left-wing opponents.

UPDATE: Arnault is now suing Libération, according to a press release from his company. Arnault, "has no other choice, given the extreme vulgarity and violence of the headline," it says.

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24 comments

Tue, 2012-09-11 19:04 — Christie Malry (not verified)

And how many Frenchman working at the average wage will it take to replace the taxes he now won't be paying in France? I don't know if there's an equivalent in French to "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face", but they might not be laughing so hard if other rich taxpayers decide to follow suit.

Tue, 2012-09-11 11:59 — M. E. (not verified)

Populism from Libération. Tries to give impression of opposition to class society, which no longer is the case with this "newspaper" or the party it supports, PS.

Both Libération and Arnault want France to be governed by PS and UMP, two parties that no longer have any fundemental differences, and they both create these "conflicts" to try to give an impression of fundamental opposition.

Tue, 2012-09-11 07:04 — left turn

You seldom help the poor by dragging down the rich. The rich aren't the problem it's the poor. Everybody makes their choices and spends a lifetime living with those choices. If people do not want to live in poverty then they need to make the necessary choices to rise up out of it. In Britain that's possible other places not so. In Britain we can decide how many children we have, how hard we study at school, how much effort we put into our job or business. In Britain we are still lucky to have choices billions around the world don’t. Simply blaming a rich minority for the countries ills we are simply deluding ourselves into believing our choices are simple.

Tue, 2012-09-11 08:38 — cr0ft (not verified)

Don't be absurd.

The problem is the system itself. In order for there to be rich, there has to be a vast lower class that props them up. The obscene overabundance that the rich have hoarded has come at the expense of the people who are currently poor.

If everyone is a billionaire, nobody is rich... so the system is inherently corrupt and will cause immense suffering the to the vast majority of humanity in order to give a thin thin sliver of humanity billions.

Upwards mobility is an option that many claim is just a matter of choosing it, but that disregards the rat trap that the poor are in - the more money you have, the easier it is to make more of it, but the consequence of that in the other end is that the less you have, the harder it gets to make any. Furthermore, the poor are sharply limited in how much they can rise and become exploiters by the entire system - they get worse schooling, worse opportunities, worse health and so on. The barrier to rise from poverty to wealth is immensely high - as it has to be to perpetuate this hideous approach to social organization we use.

A far better approach would be something like a resource-based economy; for that, see the Venus Project for example.

Tue, 2012-09-11 20:55 — left turn

Would your Utopia be free to be idle? Man is the rebel child of nature do we need to argue here to prove that the resources of the world and the energy of mankind if they were organised sanely, are amply sufficient to supply every material need of every living human being on this planet?

Tue, 2012-09-11 02:52 — Scott Loranger (not verified)

You people are ridiculous.

1) 75% is on the marginal tax rate. He doesn't pay 75% on every euro he makes.

2) He is only the richest man in Europe, yet somehow he's become the helpless child on the school yard getting his apple taken away by the bullies? Take that sob story to most common people, it wouldn't pass the laugh test.

3) The money he has made (and so much it has been apparently) was started with his inheritance of the firm his father started, Ferret-Savinel. Just like 80% of wealthy individuals in the United States (see Summers and Kotlikoff for the study), his wealth came from his parents, not industriousness and saving.

He's not a hero. He's not a martyr. He's just greedy.

Tue, 2012-09-11 23:16 — John Cheese (not verified)

Ha! You must love Mitt Romney b/c he gave away his father's inheritance & started Bain with partners. Many, many teachers unions, harvard univ, yale, etc have invested in Bain's portfolio. 401K's have invested. All have done well. And, uh, you have it reversed Boo, 80% of US millionaires are the first generation in their families to have done well. But thanks for playing!

Tue, 2012-09-11 01:18 — Mendès - . (not verified)

Con in french is more like idiot than bastard. Bastard does have its translation, it is bâtard and is extremely pejorative. Con is much more light hearted and is used on a regular basis in daily life. Important distintion and helps understand how France's 3rd most influential newspaper can get away with it.

Personally i feel no pain for the 4th richest man in the world who when invited by the president, prime minister and several socialist ministers to come discuss constructive solutions to the most urgent economic and social problems facing the French people today, would only talk about injurious it was to impose a 75% tax on 5,000,000 euro salary.

Tue, 2012-09-11 01:32 — vncnt (not verified)

I think a good translation is cunt, as 'con' also refers to the vagina and is from the same root. I feel no pain at all as well. Les bourgeois c'est comme les cochons, plus ca devient vieux, plus ca devient ....

Tue, 2012-09-11 01:14 — Louis Hooffstetter (not verified)

Come to the United States Mssr. Arnault , build factories and hire workers. We need you.

Mon, 2012-09-10 22:43 — Posh Tosh (not verified)

Meanwhile Osborne has flipped his farm and we the taxyer are paying for it.

He gets 100% hand relief on all his earnings!

Mon, 2012-09-10 22:44 — Posh Tosh (not verified)

taxpayer - funny how this site screws-up postings!

Mon, 2012-09-10 22:38 — Posh Tosh (not verified)

Did he tap any European MP's calls?

It seems the Stazi are running Europe

Not elected by the people,but by bankers.

Hang on I have a deltoid muscle weakness and cannot utter Mien Fuhrer!

Mon, 2012-09-10 20:30 — JamesMadison (not verified)

So the guy trying to keep the money he earned is arrogant, yet the ones trying to steal 75% of it to buy votes with are full of virtue?

Forget france, next time Germany invades they can keep the damned place.

Tue, 2012-09-11 13:49 — Dark Heart of Toryland (not verified)

So the guy magically created his wealth from nothing, all by himself, without any help from anybody else, did he? No, of course he didn't. His wealth was created entirely on the backs of others who worked for him. He obviously has vastly more wealth than is remotely necessary, so why is it so very unreasonable, in a time of financial crisis, that his wealth should be used for the benefit of the society that enabled him to acquire it in the first place?

Mon, 2012-09-10 20:29 — JamesMadison (not verified)

So the guy trying to keep the money he earned is arrogant, yet the ones trying to steal 75% of it to buy votes with are full of virtue?

Forget france, next time Germany invades they can keep the damned place.

Tue, 2012-09-11 10:34 — Paul Trembath (not verified)

If you think anyone was trying to take 75% of his money then YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT and should ask a grown-up before you do something dangerous like vote. Seriously.

Mon, 2012-09-10 19:51 — RichardM (not verified)

No sense of humour, these Belgians.

Mon, 2012-09-10 19:50 — RichardM (not verified)

@Arturo Yes, bastard is a perfectly good translation for 'con' here, says this long-standing French translator.

Mon, 2012-09-10 19:24 — Arturo (not verified)

Does the French word "con" mean bastard?

I don't think so.

Mon, 2012-09-10 15:39 — Lucidus (not verified)

The Belgian citizenship is just Phase 1 of his plan. Income tax is 50% there.

Phase 2 is to renounce his French citizenship:

"As a Belgian, Mr Arnault could benefit from tax-free status in Monaco – but only if he renounced his French citizenship. French people who live in the tiny principality are taxed in France. Belgians citizens live there tax free."

independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/luxury-treachery-and-a-break-for-belgiums-border-8120843.html

Mon, 2012-09-10 15:19 — John Cheese (not verified)

Arnault discovers what all school kids know: at some point you have to stand up to the bully that wants your apple out of your own lunchbox...