France’s top rock star, Johnny Hallyday, must have spent too much time in the U.K. and the U.S., for he seems to have absorbed the selfish Anglo-Saxon penchant for not wishing to be used and abused by government. M. Hallyday is moving to Switzerland in order to escape France’s high taxes. Here’s the full account from today’s New York Times:
Johnny Hallyday Bids France Adieu
To imagine Elvis Presley moving to Monaco is to imagine what it was like in France when the veteran rocker Johnny Hallyday announced he was leaving the country for Switzerland. The decision, newly revealed by the news magazine L’Express, hit France like a bombshell, The Associated Press reported. What’s more, it was an act with political implications for the country’s presidential race. Mr. Hallyday, 63, said he was moving at the end of the month to Gstaad, the Alpine ski resort, to escape France’s high taxes. “Like many French, I’m sick of paying what is imposed on us in the way of taxes,” he said.
Mr. Hallyday has made it clear that he supports the presidential ambitions of Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, who promises lower levies if he wins election next spring. Mr. Hallyday was promptly taunted by the Socialist party leader, François Hollande, who said, “If he really thought Nicolas Sarkozy could win, and was so convinced by his policies, he only had to wait four months.”
(Hat tip to my better half.)
