In Lille, Darmanin expresses his "dream of a France where all workers are owners and shareholders"

Mr. Darmanin, who was speaking at the Horizons Congress, the party of his "friend" Edouard Philippe, took the opportunity to put a number of proposals up for debate, developed in particular with his think tank "Populaires".

"We know and feel, dear Edouard, that the slogan of our future joint campaign should not be 'the French first', but 'workers first', in order to demonstrate the radical nature (...) of a political program based solely on respect for work," he declared before the 1.600 or so participants.

Considering it necessary to "abolish this obsolete and discouraging system of social taxation which weighs on work", and to "remove tens of billions of euros of contributions from workers' pay slips", he called for "finally transferring the financing of our social model to VAT".

He also expressed the hope that "all workers" would be able to be "shareholders" in their company. "In exchange, the state will no longer levy a single euro of tax on their shares or their dividends. No more flat-rate social security contributions, no more income tax, no more CSG (social security contribution), and no more inheritance tax when you have been a shareholder," he continued.

Another goal to pursue, according to him: "That everyone in France, at some point in their life, can be a homeowner." "With tens of billions of euros in public aid and tax breaks, let's set up zero-interest loans for absolutely all French people eligible for social housing," he said, calling for "the very spirit of social housing to be stopped."

Mr. Darmanin also proposed "eliminating taxation on donations during one's lifetime" and "moving towards a funded pension system."

"Let's open a sovereign wealth fund by selling some of the tens of billions of shares that the state currently manages, and use the proceeds from these shares to organize the start of a funded pension system," he projected.