国际英语新闻：France's 2011 budget draft holds promises, risks

To Michel Sapin, Socialist Party's (PS') secretary for economic affairs, the outlook is clouded by an increase in taxes likely to affect further the large slice of the middle class in the country of 65 million population.

"The budget is nothing than the invoice of Sarkozyism," he said in a statement posted on the party website.

"The crisis explained one third of the public finance deficit in 2010, the rest is the result of an irresponsible policy which has widened the deficit with tax breaks for the wealthiest of our citizens, when our partners Europeans took advantage of growth to reduce them," he added.

The Sarkozy government decided to cut social tax loopholes to save 10 billion euros (13.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2011 while it kept tax shield and solidarity tax on wealth, a measure protecting especially people of high incomes and rich real assets.

"The proposed budget will affect the middle class. We need a budget which cut deficit but doesn't hamper the growth recovery. Instead of that, we have a budget which increases taxes and reduces spending which would be necessary to maintain growth," Martine Aubry, the head of the left-wing PS told the private TV channel Canal+.

She criticized the new budget plan was austere to hit first the middle class but loose hands on the very rich.

The draft budget plan is scheduled to be presented to the National Assembly on Oct. 18.