Great refusal of Thomas Piketty and slap to the president François Hollande. The French economist, author of the best seller "Capital in the XNUMXst century", has refused to be knighted in the Legion of Honour, one of the highest awards of the French state.
"I refuse because I don't think it's the government's role to decide who to honour, they'd better devote themselves to relaunching growth in France and Europe," he said.
Piketty, who directs the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris, in his book of one and a half million copies sold denounces the growing inequality between rich and poor in the world, proposing a progressive taxation on large capitals. Some have called him the Marx of the new millennium, but it is a fact that he more than anyone else has dedicated himself to the issue of inequality. In a recent interview with Repubblica he expressed his sympathy for the Greek Alexis Tsipras and stated that he does not represent a danger as much as Angela Merkel's austerity policies are.
Piketty's great refusal has precedents: before him the great philosopher Jean Paul Sartre gave up in the name of freedom (it was 1945) and the Curie spouses as well as the composer Hector Berlioz and the songwriter George Brassens. The legion of honor was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte. The recognition is awarded to women and men, both French citizens and foreigners, for extraordinary merits in military and civilian life.
