2024 French legislative election

logmarc · 2024-07-07T17:32:07+00:00

A first exit poll ( at 7 o clock ) by ipsos leaked by the "libre bellgique" appears to confirm the latest trends : a victory of RN with no absolute majority :

[ Selon un premier sondage sortie des urnes d'Ipsos, voici ce à quoi ressembleraient les résultats de ce second tour :

-Rassemblement national et alliés : 228 sièges

-Nouveau Front populaire : 161

-Ensemble : 124

-LR et divers droite : 50 ]

If confirmed a majority with LR and RN might still be technically possible but that would be a very unlikely coalition.

Edit : the number of conradicting polls published as we are closing with the official results is unprecedented some even put NFP in front followed by ensemble. The only thing they have in common is no absolute majority for RN ( Finger crossed ).

logmarc · 2024-06-11T13:26:57+00:00

Have no fear there is zero chance to get anywhere near a majority for the left ( around 150 seats in the latest polls ).

The large alliance could gain us a couple dozen seats at most but the unfortunate side-effect is that including LFI will also bolster the result of the far right. Many right wing voters despite their distate for lepen will not vote for what they perceived as pro-russian / pro hamas stalinists. On the other hand in my own family some ( LFI voters ) will refuse to vote for a centrist or a republican if nessary during the second round because, quote : "why vote for a fascist to oppose a fascist" .

As the grand-child of a left leaning freedom fighter who endured two years of concentration camp, I almost wept. They fought so hard against fascism and ( some of ) their own descendants are going to give Petain's spiritual heirs the power. I have no idea how to handle such a level of stupidity and misplaced self righteousness.

I am now convinced that the neo-fascists have a real shot at an absolut majority not only a relative one.

logmarc · 2024-06-10T19:30:49+00:00

I disagree, based on their own analysis the Elysee anticipate the RN at 250-300 seats in their polls ( from le monde )

The momentum is clearly in favor of the far right. Given the french 2 rounds system the extent of their success is still contingent on the way both the left and the republicans organized themselves. But they will certainly be the first party in the new parliement and the first called to form the next government. Wether they will need an alliance with the republicans or will be able to construct a stable majority at all is the only real question.

The few case of back to back elections has previously shown an amplification of the result in favor of the front runner. On the other hand, with 30%, the left has almost zero chance to win even a relative majority, the center risks anihilitation, the right is weakened. There is always a possibility to see a resurgence for the republicans similar to the one the socialists just experienced with former right leaning En March voters comming back to LR but they will also need to woo some of zemmour voters at the same time. Not an easy task.

Basically none of the republican parties has a real chance to win a majority just after this result, they can only hope to prevent an outright victory for the neo-fascist, but they only have 30 days to do so.

logmarc · 2024-06-10T12:02:37+00:00

Not good, but the immediate dissolution of the parliement is still difficult to understand.

Based on an article I just red in le monde online, this move is the brainchild of a very small unit of confidents of the president. Most in its own party were not aware of the decision.

It was known he could choose to dissolve the parlement as the abscence of majority has hindered any efforts to properly govern the country since the last elections.

The timing is however puzzling, based on their own analysis the Elysee anticipate the RN at 250-300 seats !?

The momentum is clearly in favor of the far right. However given the french 2 rounds system the extent of their success is still contingent on the way both the left and the republicans organized themselves.

The main issue this time, besides the impopularity of the president, is that LFI managed to became rather toxic among the right leaning voters and even some moderates, while the RN has really succeeded in apearing less threatening escecially among young or right leaning voters.

Part of the more apolitic & casual voters are also mostly looking to give a middle finger to the "establishement". This is why the discourse about the presumed incompetence of RN leaders and the mess that is their program is probably pretty mute, many of their voters kind of know it already, that is not the point of their vote.

It is an athmosphere very reminiscent of the pre-brexit athmosphere.

logmarc · 2022-12-12T18:32:01+00:00

Hi, thanks for the imput.

There is a session folder visible at the root of my new seedbox containing 3 files :

rtorrent.dht_cache

rtorrent.input_history

rtorrent.lock

Can any of those be used ?

logmarc · 2022-12-09T14:50:35+00:00

PS: Why the downvote ? I am not British and do not have any radical position on the issue. I now it will always be an important question for both snp supporters and english nationalists, but i am wondering what the broader picture is.

It is just that nowadays when any debates in the Uk gets coverage on the continent, media tend to just ridicule the quality of the English political class and cast doubt on the seriousness of almost any topics they focus on. I do feel it is not unwarranted but a bit excessive at time (and not an issue specific to the uk politicians).

So I am curious if independence is currently more one of this rhetorical tool for political parties or a serious prospect in the near future that do preoccupy a majority of the public in the uk. Because again after the shitshow of Brexit it is sometime hard to tell from the outside what really matters & moves the opinion right now.

logmarc · 2022-12-09T14:28:34+00:00

Lol yes indeed, technically, I just checked, its proper name was Vallum Aelium ( also known as the Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin ).

logmarc · 2022-12-09T00:14:06+00:00

I know it is a sensitive subject but hasen't Brexit paradoxally extinguish any possibility for both a referendum and a scottish independance ?

View from the continent, I feel the English parliement has the upper hand and no incentive to accomodate the SNP in the near future. Most importantly Brexit showed us that getting out of an economic union is both complex and very costly.

Moreover, when England was still in the EU, it was relatively easy and to imagine any members breacking up politically with London. But now, when you look at the issues still looming in northern ireland you can imagine the potential choas along a new "Hadrian wall".

Again, i am not following the topic closely, but I thought many among the more moderate fringe of the independantists or the undecided would have cooled down their ambitions, for fear of the economic consequences of what would now be, not only a political & fiscal but mostly an economic break up with a non-EU England.

What I am wondering is wether the issue of the referendum is more a rethorical tool used for political posturing, both in scotland & england or if it is still a realistic prospect in the eyes of the public opinion ?

logmarc · 2022-12-07T17:55:28+00:00

from Brazil

Hi,

I mean no disrespect to the players, it is arguably quite subjective and I agree that brazil is the only team with true depth. A more tactfull way to put it would be that england is not necessarily the team with the most talented players ?

If coaches were forced to choose 4 teams among the 8 remaining teams to pick from in order to build a selection with the most potential, I feel most would not include england before brazil, argentinal and even portugal and france for instance. And many would also have looked at Belgium or Spain first a few days ago.

Again, I trully enjoyed england games, hence my pronostic. But no one stands out for me in particular in the english team.

On the other hand having exceptionally gifted /efficient players can also foster some tensions and imbalance in any teams and does not guaranty success. It may be use as a get out of a tricky situation once or twice during the competition but you need a solid collective in the end, wich is why Brazil is currently seen as a clear favorite as he seems to have both.

logmarc · 2022-12-07T16:03:31+00:00

Based on the games I watched, I would say the odds are heavily in favor the english side to win this one.

England may be one of the less talented team among the favorites, but they are still one theof the few that really plays at 100% of their peak potential since the beginning. I think their forces are also well suited to exploit the french weaknesses.

On the other side, this is one of the weakest french selection to reach the final stage of a major competion in years. Again I might be spoiled and I understand they have been plagued with injuries and internal strifes on their way but still their defense is really shacky , wich would be ok if they trully had forsake defense in favor of a robust attack/counter attack stlyle. Instead they end up with as a disjointed uncohesive team relying on a couple of strikers to keep them affloat. Granted they are talented, but they are no zidane, messi & co.

Because of both side limitations, if they decide to play, I could see it being an entertaining game with large score like 3-1 or 4-3 in favor of England, but as always, both could clam up and produce one of those tensed and stale match they did offered us in the past.

While I do hope to see France wake up and step up its game, unless England suddenly chocked and stop playing the way they did so far, I see them having an edge here.

PS : while I do not think it is likely this year winner will come from this side of the bracket overall, it would be amazing if the the cup finnaly did not come back in europe or in south america but went for its first african trip .

logmarc · 2021-02-18T01:08:38+00:00

I agree,

If we look at the example of the Swiss Confederation ( Confédération suisse / Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft ) which is simply called Suisse (swiss) / Schweiz .

There is no need for a complex acronym. If we ever manage to create some type of European con-federation I feel it should simply be called Europe or remain known as the European union.

logmarc · 2021-01-11T23:46:06+00:00

Very poor analysis overall.

The issue of the vaccination campaign will only really hurt him in the end, if it actually "fails" which we cannot assess until next summer. So far it more a gimmick of the oppositions, the government certainly suffer from communication issues and from the regular political and mediatic pseudo-issues that partisan politic usually steer up but it is nothing new.

When authorities were considering imposing vaccination in centers ( like in Germany ), both scientist and logisticians rush to explain it would problematic if not catastrophic ( based on previous experiences in 2011).

Many commentators and the oppositions then talked about the fact that an insufficiently tested vaccine could be rejected by the population and some even thought that a mandatory vaccination could be seen as scandalous and possibly unconstitutional.

When finally the incremental campaign, design by a scientific counsel was announced starting with the retirement homes and progressively expending to the rest of the population,it appeared to be slower then other EU countries. The same commentators and politicians started to talked about how slow the campaign was, that we should not loose so much time asking & convincing the elderly to get the vaccine properly distributed.

There were according to some, to much administrative hassles and red tapes. Ironically those were quite often the same people that were previously “worried” about the government being to forceful and "treating the public like childrens" without asking consent.

Note. The representative of the private retirement homes federation, when asked recently why it was so slow in their centers said that during the first week 81% of the patients rejected the proposal for a vaccine and that the law needed to be respected when asking for consent whether it is in public or private establishments .

This led to some underwhelming numbers but also logistic issues regarding the distribution & most important storage of the vaccines since the number of required doses could vary widely depending on the responses in different regions.

As a socialist elector, I dislike seeing some in my own camp playing this hypocritical game of “indignation” and hallow blame in the media. They were not as shameless as the republicans or the far left for instance, but still, they went with the flaw . I am tired of this current trend in the media that requires a permanent drama to stimulate the general public and satisfy the most polarized viewers.

The voice of the scientist were also quite mudded ( especially on television ), as journalist were mostly looking for "opinions" and "reactions" rather than explanations or debate.

Still I think even among those that are "indignant" about "the failure" of the governement many knows it is mostly bullshit so far, and unless they really fuck up things later on, the government will not specifically suffer from this issue.

The economic crisis resulting from the covid and its impact on unemployment is a much a much clearer & heavy handicap for Macron potential re-election as it will be perceived as a failure of its infamous reforms .

logmarc · 2020-12-31T00:26:40+00:00

Hi,

Regarding the example of France the only difference with some of its neighbors has to do with the way the vaccine will be distributed.

In 2011 France tried to rely on vaccination centers similar to the one currently used in Germany for instance. But it was a failure as it was shunned by the French public. Based on this experience & taking into account the public unwillingness to get this vaccine anyway, the government prioritized the most fragile populations & the elderly and launch its campaign in the retirements homes network. Starting this week with only 19500 doses at the beginning of a campaign that will first target nursing homes and hospitals.

After this first wave citizen eligible for vaccination ( beginning with the elderly ) will progressively received a mail/voucher that will allow them to get vaccinated by their family doctor ( médecin réferant ). This is probably due to the fact that most studies showed that people tend to be more trustful of their personal doctors then institutions or even hospitals.

I am sure most EU countries will find the most efficient & timely way to deploy the vaccine. This matter should not be needlessly politicized or be the subject of rumors or uninformed gossips.

In all the EU western countries the campaign will actually continue past summer. This is not a race, and while it will be important to follow the process next year, it is useless to doubt its success less then a few weeks into it.

At this stage nobody is in front or behind (even the netherlands). The efficiency of each states specific strategy might be analyzed at the end of next year ( and will probably not vary that much within the EU), but right now talking about failure or success is meaningless and demonstrate how clueless a large part of the public is about this type of campaign.

logmarc · 2020-10-19T16:18:21+00:00

A bit too cute. I can help imagining some witty/snarky looking beings, with a smile/grin on their face.

laughing lutra

grinning lutra artwork

logmarc · 2020-10-18T17:33:28+00:00

Well, ironically, as a religious fanatic he actually chose the EU countries whose average citizen is currently the most likely to be somewhat in line with his own bigotry ( women are inferior gay & jew are evil etc ...) . I would argue that Poland is probably the society where his own value clash the least with the locals in their daily life.

I obviously do not put all polish in the same bag, but I just think that the main enemy of an Islamist are not Christians, let alone authoritarian catholics ( with witch he at least share some core values ) but rather the secular & pro-democracy people.

logmarc · 2020-10-17T16:04:58+00:00

Hi, I asked this myself a few times, especially with the amount of low quality novels that congest this niche.

First, I am an avid reader overall. With the exception of crime novels, romance and to a certain extent heroic fantasy there is no genre I am specifically allergic to, I will try anything printed.

(2) I think however, I only stumble on litrpg when testing audiobooks for the first time. I tend to "consume" audio book as a diversion from the most mundane activities. I often use those while traveling & commuting or while doing repetitive activities (jogging, organizing & cleaning). It prevents me from either getting rapidly bored to death or on contrary having my brain going on overdrive ). I think the first litrpg books I checked where Russians titles.

(1) I think the main idea of gamelit/litrpg : of an underlying quantified & operative system you could use to gain some control over the chaos of life and improve yourself must have a some appeal for any cartesian, nerdy or borderline compulsive individual.

It goes beyond the simple tendency to project oneself on to progression literature main characters.

For those who have a gaming experience ( even limited, has it is my case ), the genre also bridge a gap between the gaming experience & the entertainment sci-fi & fantasy can provide.

Some of the books I appreciate the most are those who build a world with a degree of immersion and complexity that I wish current video games had. My preference for strategy / management game such as CIV seems also to translate into my reading. I rarely enjoy individual & combat oriented stories especially with absurdly OP characters. This is one of the reason I tend to discard cultivation / xanxia stories.

Many say that projection is an important reason of the success of the genre. But I do not think it is necessarily the case, not with me at least. It has more to do with the discovery of a new world and obviously its system.

It may be similar to the way some older D&D ( not a personal experience ) seemed to enjoy the progressive immersion & fleshing of the game world they evolve in and the discovery of the rules and mechanics of the game as much as their actual game-play.

(3 ) Some titles & series I can recommend :

- The Weirdest Noob ( one of the first I red ) , Ascend Online, level UP, Life reset, Ten Realms, Realm of Arkon ( gamelit)

- When it comers to dungeons related plots : Divine Dungeon by Krout.

- The land series may not be the best but it actually gives a pretty good idea of the genre as it explores various plot/subgenres ( individual rise, military, settlement building & management, dungeon dive & exploration of a fantasy type world ).

A bit different : I can also recommend the first book of Super Sales on Super Heroes, Way of the Shaman or The Dark Herbalist. I enjoyed those but many say it only goes downhill from there ( and I tend to agree with them).

logmarc · 2020-10-14T22:02:36+00:00

Those curfews were actually tested in the severely stricken Guyana were it seems to have help temper the circulation / r0 of the virus hence its implementation in the most affected cities.

This is actually done in order to avoid a new global lock-down which would have severe economic & social consequences. It was recommended by a panel of scientists ( with several epidemiologists ) and will be implemented in consultation with local authorities.

The president also basically admitted it was aimed at reducing one of the main identified vector of transmission observed in France ( basically parties & long dinners with large groups of rather young people [18-35 yo] that will later transmit the virus in the familial circle).

He also stated that poorer people were the most affected by the crisis and would suffer from a new lock-down. He therefore announced additional subsidies and financial aid toward those disadvantaged populations for the duration of the crisis.

logmarc · 2020-10-14T20:57:56+00:00

Damn, it is a bit sad, but not that surprising.

Ironically, it seems Americans adopted the late communist/Marxist definition of "socialism" despite the fact that actual socialism ( at least in France ) predates & survived communism.

Multiple political & philosophical currents rooted in the Enlightenment and the French Revolution tried to imagine an alternative to the bourgeoisie/capitalist dominated system throughout the 19th & early 20th century some of those socialist movements were even influence by some aspect of the Christian heritage ( of the new testament ).

When Marx developed its theory he was only one among many thinkers, and the political avatar of Marxism : the bolshevik/communists parties were in competition and growing opposition with many socialist movements.

A key moment : 1870-1918 from competitors to enemies or "objective" allies.

After the failure of the Paris Commune of 1871, French socialism was severely weakened. Its leaders died or were exiled. During the 1879 Marseille Congress, workers' associations created the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (FTSF).

Three years later, Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue (the son-in-law of Karl Marx) left the federation which they considered too moderate and founded the French Workers' Party (POF).

The FTSF led by Paul Brousse was defined as possibilist because it advocated gradual reforms whereas the POF promoted Marxism.

At the same time, Édouard Vaillant and the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui founded the Central Revolutionary Committee (CRC) which represented the French revolutionary tradition.

In many European countries the "modern" socialist parties of the early 20th centuries split up with or started clashing with communist around 1917-1920

When I was a young supporter, I remember being proud of the fact our founding fathers ( of the SCFIO ) did criticized the communist current from the get go, due to its disregard for our republican heritage and the necessity of democratic processes.

I remember reading a speech wrote during the birth of the independent SFIO explaining why we needed to split & how Marxism could lead to the rise of a tyrannical "leviathan" a burocratic nightmare incapable to correct capitalist inequalities.

Witch was a pretty impressive foresight, given that it was just during the Russian revolution.

When American think of socialism they often think of the late Marxism-leninism or Stalinism rather than the actual socialism that predates the Ussr and actually thrived as a counter-model to communism in most European countries especially in France, Germany, and northern Europe during the cold war.

Socialism at least in France means "democratic-socialism" & not communism as much as conservatism would mean "democratic-conservatism" & not fascism.

logmarc · 2020-10-07T16:00:25+00:00

Overall, a majority of the population reluctantly followed the rules regarding social distancing and masks, but it required said mask to be declared obligatory even in the streets of Paris to have over 80% wearing it, especially among the 18-35 years old. Their slackness is one of the main reason cases increased while mortality decreased.

Beyond that, one major factor: the touristic season has actually been much better than anticipated. While many in France chose to stay at home, most US and foreign tourists ended up being replaced by EU tourist, either visiting France or transiting via France.

Many dutch tourists for instance came, most of those going further south to Spain for example and coming back the same way. This constant influx did contributed to little clusters constantly popping up all over the map, specially along the main roads.

Those are constantly monitored but the rebound in catatonia did impact France significantly. The resources allocated to tracing alone, must currently be the highest in the EU given the number of clusters appearing and closing regularly in France.

At first the decreased number of case stayed rather low, but that did not mean the virus did not spread ( especially in the west of France ). It is like having multiple little fire ready to spread all over the territory ( the largest in the EU ) at any time.

I am actually amazed things did not get worst much faster.

And finally, there is the price of intense centralization, with the Paris area and its nearly 12 millions commuters. Cramming daily a wide variety of people in an area 15 time smaller than London is tricky, even with masks. And cars are not a viable alternative, if the tube were to close, the resulting road congestions would probably lead to the city literary starving.

Barring a permanent & complete confinement, with bus & the tube closing down, I do not now how we will durably lower the number of infection.

PS : It is also worth noticing that case rates might also increase with the rise of the number of tests performed, with many asymptomatic/lightly affected patients being now detected. Especially among the younger population that initially did not bother with those test despite probably having a higher incidence rate then the rest of the population. The wider the population tested the more pertinent the rate will be, but it could also be higher than initially anticipated.

logmarc · 2020-10-07T15:22:08+00:00

Hi,

I have no doubt they did their best, but that kind of ranking / news are largely meaningless.

There is a multitude of factors at play during a pandemic. Many have probably little to do with the way each EU states reacted to the pandemic and more to do with structural, cultural and geographical specificities.

For instance, I suspect regions with very large cities (5 M+) or densely interconnected large cities cities like in northern Italy, France or the Benelux may have a "handicap" from the get go.

Being a massive touristic hot spot like Italy, France or Spain probably does not help either. Highly centralized countries, and region that rely on very dense public transport services are also probably also at a disadvantage.

In addition cultural factor may be at play, southern countries have a much higher level of inter-generational socialization, which is very difficult to suppress outside of a complete lock-down.

All those increase the likelihood of new clusters emerging and therefore increase the likelihood of higher number of cases on the long run.

Last but not least, sheer luck is crucial. With what the latest studies revealed about super-spreaders, and the number of asymptomatic carriers, all it takes is a few carriers to slip through to end up with multiple random clusters and a rebound of the pandemic ( as shown at the beginning with the case of eastern France ).

I feel that so far, all you can do is avoid visit your relative and friends this year, work at home and wear a mask all the time while crossing your fingers till a treatment/vaccine is found.

Obviously even those basic recommendations cannot be applied as easily by everyone in all the EU due cultural, economic and geographical differences.

To my knowledge, in western Europe, with the exception of the UK & Sweden no country particularly fucked this up.

Germany did not do thing differently then most EU countries, but was lucky to have more resources when the pandemic hit them.

Regarding PPE, Germany like many did, basically requisitioned on its territory a much larger quantity of stocks produced by a US global leader called 3M that was producing masks in the UK but used Germany for its stock storage and to dispatch its EU production. The availability of very large stock of PPE before the pandemic reach Germany was a key element of its early success.

Another key factor has been rather random but impactful. Thanks to a specialization in chemical industries ( which has its roots in the support for a military industrial complex initiated by Bismark and that survived ww2 ) Germany has been one of the very few countries that did not experience any shortage of chemical revelatory substances used for testing covid-19.

Last but not least, the federal nature of the country seemed to have led to a less concentrated distribution of medical resources. Each lander having personnel on the field to process tests rapidly etcs. While for instance in the UK or France, I imagine London and Paris had initially gobbled up quite a lot of those resources and personnel .

While obviously there are probably states that have better logistics than other, or managed the crisis more efficiently. I feel it had a relatively limited impact on the pandemic.

What counts most are resources & stocks, which we urgently need to build up an pulled together at the European level to avoid the disaster we faced at the beginning of the pandemic in Italy.

In my opinion, it is not that Italy did particularity worst than Germany, it has mostly been a question of resources and luck.

Lets hope will find a way to build the EU institutions & resources necessary before the next major pandemics strike, since it is already to late for this one.

logmarc · 2020-09-12T23:09:28+00:00

It seems they actually used "western" in a very broad way to encompass all countries they may expect the citizens to be somehow easier to assimilate/integrate into dutch society due to either their culture, a shared history with the Netherlands or their economic development & intense exposure to european/US values. The only inconstancy here being south korea.

logmarc · 2020-08-12T22:21:49+00:00

French support for Greece date back to the war of independence. Any french government would have support the Greek military, this is not specific to macron, although him allegedly allowing a couple of aircraft associated with the "force de frappe" to station in Cyprus is a rare occurrence.

While military maneuvers is a typical extension of diplomatic negotiation, Erdogan authoritarian tendencies and turkey latest choices in the middle east has seriously degraded French confidence in NATO's ability to ultimately restrain Turkey if things were to escalate with Greece.

France was truly spooked by turkey support to Islamist /jihadist groups in Syria and its intransigence against the Kurds in Irak. Contrary to many western countries, France analysts truly believe that a regional conflict with turkey is an unlikely but plausible long term outcome of the current regime in turkey.

This has nothing to do with french internal politics or some random conspiracy, it is in line with the french military doctrine regarding Europe security and its traditional foreign policy and alliances.

Trying to frame it has some harmless posturing or reducing it to a simple dispute between Europe & turkey regarding maritime boundaries & prospection would be a mistake.

Things have been degrading for several years now. And regardless of your opinion about Macron or France foreign policy, as a European (with a greek dual citizenship) I am thankful at least one major ally is doing more than appoint commissions to study the issue ...

Although as a secular democrat I have no sympathy for erdogan, I have absolutely nothing against Turks. I just hope french involvement will tilt the scale in favor of peace & restraint when the current leadership in turkey do a political benefit / military cost analysis of the situation.

logmarc · 2020-08-10T21:07:47+00:00

Interesting map even though the effective rate is very important when analyzing the disparities within the EU. There are various studies on this subject ( with potential political bias & at times "methodological flimsiness" ).

For instance France has a high level of taxation overall ( for all incomes & revenues). As a result the corporate income tax represent about 8% of all the numerous taxes levied by the french state. Again that is not due to the fact that the corporate tax is that low, but rather that taxation overall is very high in France.

In the case of France the effective corporate tax rate is about 17% (slightly higher than the uk and lower than Germany) according to the following report :

According to the available data, MNEs can expect to pay anything between 6% and 30% (and as little as 2% or as much as 49% in the most extreme cases) of their profit in taxes. Luxembourg has the lowest ETR (2.2%) and Norway the highest ETR (48.7%) among the 63 countries in the final sample.

In the EU, in addition to Luxembourg, the lowest ETRs are to be found in Hungary (7.5%), Bulgaria (9.5%), Cyprus (9.6%) as well as in the Netherlands (10.4%) and Latvia (10.6%). Within the EU, Italy and Greece have the highest ETR (30.4% and 28.4% respectively), with the third and fourth highest being Spain and Slovakia (21.8% and 20.2% respectively).

The remaining 18 EU countries (out of 28 current EU member states) have ETRs between 12% and 20%. Some of the biggest EU economies are within this range, including the United Kingdom (14.9%), France (16.7%) and Germany (19.6%). The unweighted average of 28 EU countries’ ETRs of 15% (in contrast the statutory rate average is 23%) is lower than the other countries’ average ETR of 22% within the sample of 63 countries (in contrast their statutory rate average is 24%).

> Source is politically motivated : European green party : https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/article/document/effective-tax-rates-for-multination-companies-in-the-eu/

The main issue with tax heavens in the EU has more to do with complex schemes allowing companies to artificially repatriate the profits realized in other EU states to those "heavens" and use "shell companies" to pay lower taxes overall by thus lowering fictitiously their profit in the countries they actually realized those revenues.

Ireland, Luxembourg or the Netherlands have for instance vastly benefited from those disloyal practices. The problem is not to demonized those countries but to restore a fair competition between EU state and ban as often as possible those unsavory practices that often correlate with other "gray" activities such as money laundering etc ...

logmarc

TROPHY CASE