Scrutable

The EU budget rapporteur Pierre Larrouturou entered his seventh day of hunger strike today, demanding member states approve and implement an EU tax on financial transactions to help boost the budget for Horizon Europe and 14 other flagship programmes.

“I think it is scandalous that we do not invest money for health, for research, for climate,” Larrouturou said. He is protesting, “so that a majority of citizens know that we are facing a catastrophe if we don’t put [up] the money, he told Science|Business.

As to how long he will carry on with his protest, Larrouturou said he is in good health and he is not going to die, but hopes his gesture will help avoid millions of other deaths.

Without the appropriate investment in health, research and climate, “We will have millions of deaths over the next ten to twenty years,” he said.

As he went into hunger strike, Larrouturou launched a website www.speculationtax.eu, which also redirects to www.climateandjobs.eu, where he makes his case for the urgency of establishing a 0.1 per cent tax on buying and selling stock and a 0.01 per cent tax on all other financial transactions.

“We are certain this tax could raise €50 billion every year,” Larrouturou said. “And if you have €50 billion every year without asking normal citizens for one euro, I think we can help the health system, we can help research and climate.”