McDonald’s Faces Heat in France

Fight for 15 protest outside a South Memphis McDonalds

McDonald’s is facing more heat in France.

Late last year, the European Union opened an investigation into McDonald’s over potentially illegal tax deals in Luxembourg.

But it didn’t stop there.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a left-wing candidate in the French presidential race, has proposed increased taxes on high incomes and a crackdown on corporate tax deals as part of a fiscal program designed to boost the French economy.

At a rally in Paris earlier this week, Mélenchon participated in an action with the trade union CGT in front of McDonald’s voicing support for the employee’s claims and denouncing tax evasion by multinational corporations.

 

Workers were heard chanting: “Frites par frites, nuggets par nuggets, nous reprendrons le fric de McDonald’s” (“Fries for fries, nuggets for nuggets, we will take the money from McDonald’s”)

Mélenchon continues to speak out against tax avoidance and corporate deductions, and instead advocating for raising funds for a large increase in public spending.

When Mélenchon ran in the 2012 presidential election, he gained 11 percent of the vote. This year, his popularity is growing and he now appears to be the leader of the leftist side in the presidential campaign.

Sounds like the French are fed up with McDonald’s corporate greed just as much as we are.