Newly elected French President Francois Hollande has set about in fulfilling his prior campaign promises by unveiling drastic new salary plans for state-owned companies, in which top executives will have their salaries capped to just twenty times that of the firm’s lowest-paid worker.
Acting on his campaign promise, newly elected president Francois Hollande and his ministers have agreed to take a 30 percent pay cut in order to “lead by example”. Under the new decree, Hollande will see his monthly salary reduced from 21,300 to 14,910 euros.
The symbolic gesture of sacrifice and shared responsibility, the pay cut sharply contrasts with predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to increase his pay on entering office.
After he took office in 2007, Sarkozy’s salary increased by 170 percent to 19,000 euros per month ($24,097).
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are too many foreigners in France, cautioning that the system for integrating immigrants is at risk of breaking down.
On a televised debate, Sarkozy said he plans to address the immigration issue if he is re-elected next month.
Sarkozy currently trails behind the Socialist forerunner Francois Hollande in opinion polls.
French Presidential candidate Francois Hollande, who is currently leading the incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in opinion polls, has vowed to implement a 75 percent tax rate on any citizen earning over 1 million euros ($1.35 million) a year, after lamenting on the “considerable increase” in French corporate executives’ pay.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of spending more than $150 million dollars every year on his presidential expenditure account, reported the Daily Mail on Monday, despite recent pledges by the statesman to cut down on spending in the lead-up to the presidential elections later this year.
France comes under high-income OECD group economies as to the classification made by the World Bank on the basis of income and region for the year 2006.
France economy is found to be one among the top ten economies over the world in terms of its value of Gross Domestic Product. In terms of economic performance, France comes after United Kingdom and Germany.
