He set himself a goal: to win back the middle classes. During his interview at 8 p.m. on TF1 on May 15, Emmanuel Macron announced a tax cut of 2 billion euros “which focuses on these middle classes”. A message addressed to “those who are too rich to be helped” by allowances, and “not rich enough to live well”, he detailed in L’Opinion. In the viewfinder of the Head of State: income between “between 1500 and 2500 euros” penalized according to him by the “socio-fiscal” system.
However, it will take more to convince the French, as revealed by our latest Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey for Le Figaro. On the contrary, three-quarters of them think that its economic and social policy disadvantages this segment of the population. Depicted as “president of the rich”, Emmanuel Macron would favor the most “favoured” for 80% of those polled. These households who feel aggrieved do not believe in the Head of State’s change of gear either: 62% of them do not think that they will benefit from the tax cuts promised by the government.
Especially since the latter do not seem to share the definition of the “middle class” outlined by the president either. As proof, the overwhelming majority of French people (71%) say they belong to these income categories, even though they only concern 50% of the population. A “wrong” positioning, according to the institute, but which nevertheless testifies to a loss of “purchasing power”, felt by all the sections combined (95% of respondents). In question, galloping inflation, at almost 6% over one year, with almost 15% increase for food prices alone. among “the middle classes”. They are also only 6% to define themselves as “well off”, whereas they represent 20% of the population. This tendency to “underestimate” is confirmed in particular within the real “middle classes”, since 77% of the households concerned position themselves in the lower bracket: 60% see themselves as “lower middle classes”, and even for some (17%) among “low-income households”. A feeling of economic downgrading to which the promises do not seem to change anything.