Paris [France]: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pledged a “significant” cut in income tax especially the “middle-class”, and vowed to implement a bulk of other reforms in his government.
“I asked myself: Should we stop everything that was done over the past two years? Did we take a wrong turn? I believe quite the opposite,” Macron told reporters at the Elysee Palace.
The press conference was first in two years after Macron took over his office as France’s president, Al Jazeera reported.
The reform measures come as a response by the French government to five months of demonstrations by “gilets jaunes” (yellow vests) anti-government demonstrators.
The initiative would be financed by closing loopholes, squeezing government spending, but the French would also have to work more, he said.
“The feeling of our fellow citizens: “You have asked us for changes to us, and you have not changed. ”
It’s not false. We must change our democracy, our organization, our administration,” the President took to Twitter as saying.
Macron added that he wanted to make the parliament “more efficient”.
The President called for additional seats in the lower house of parliament, or the National Assembly, in order to provide representation to smaller parties, and planned to make proposals for national referendums easier.
Although the number of anti-government demonstrators has declined since a peak in November, protesters clashed with police for the 23rd weekend last Saturday.
The government introduced a string of initiatives, including increasing the minimum wage by 100 euros a month, as part of ‘economic and social emergency plan’ unveiled in November last year.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]