At first it was merely a bad idea. A year ago, when Francois Hollande promised to tax incomes over €1m ($1.3m) at 75%, even his campaign team was surprised. "Cuba without the sun!" declared a startled Emmanuel Macron, now Mr Hollande's economic adviser in the Elysee. Nowhere else in Europe comes close to such a rate, with even Sweden going up only to 57% (see chart). But politically it did the trick: Mr Hollande declared war on the rich, kept a communist rival at bay-and went on to win the presidency.
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