The wealth tax had been designed to soften the impact of the country’s broader refashioning. It had been instituted in 1982 by France’s first Socialist president, François Mitterand, as a means of bolstering social programs. Ever since, it has served as a prop in depictions of France as antagonistic to affluence, exhibit A in the stereotype that France was run by beret-wearing beatniks who saw anyone donning a gray suit as an enemy of the people. Macron argued that scrapping the tax on everything except real estate would advertise that France was eager to welcome foreign capital.
