France is under pressure to pass a spending Bill by the end of the year to rein in its deficit and soaring debt. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

A left-wing bloc made up of the Socialist, Communist, Green parties and the hard-left France Unbowed had proposed a minimum 2 per cent tax on wealth over €100 million (S$150 million), dubbed the “Zucman tax” after the French economist who devised it.

Mr Lecornu expressed his “profound disagreement” with the wealth-tax proposal, insisting there was no such thing as a “miracle tax”.