Europe | France and wealth

A taboo about money

Being rich is nothing to boast about

|paris

AT FIRST glance, the death this week of Abbé Pierre, a French Catholic priest and former resistance fighter who spent half a century combating poverty, and an ongoing political spat over taxing the rich, have little in common. The first prompted the celebration of a big life; the second is a predictable election-campaign squabble. Yet both expose the complicated relationship between the French and money—already a dominant theme of the campaign for this year's presidential election.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A taboo about money”

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