Macron's Anti-Crisis Measures Unaffordable, To Raise Debt - French Politician

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2018) Concessions that French President Emmanuel Macron promised to anti-fuel tax protesters after weeks of rioting cannot be funded from budget savings and will raise debt burden, Gerard Bapt, a member of the French Socialist Party, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Macron said Monday that he would raise the minimum wage, scrap tax on overtime, encourage employers to give workers a tax-free bonus at the end of the year, and drop plans for a tax raise for low-income pensioners - totaling $9-11 billion in extra budget funding.

"These funds will only increase debt for the most part. It is always possible to increase the debt and it is always like this, because savings will not be sufficient to implement these measures," Bapt said.

The measures were proposed in an effort to appease thousands of demonstrators who gathered in Paris last Saturday for the fourth weekend of protests. The grassroots movement, dubbed yellow vests, has grown from rallies against a rising tax on diesel to a nationwide outcry against high living costs and government's policies.