As you may have heard, French actor and very handsome man Gérard Depardieu has bought a house in neighboring Belgium to avoid insane tax increases imposed by the Socialist government. The French prime minister described this as “pathetic” and “unpatriotic,” and Depardieu didn’t like that very much.
“Pathetic, you said pathetic? How pathetic is that?” Depardieu said in a letter to the weekly newspaper le Journal du Dimanche.
“I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned,” he said…
“People more illustrious than me have gone into [tax] exile. Of all those that have left none have been insulted as I have…”
“We no longer have the same homeland,” Depardieu said. “I no longer have any reason to stay here. I will continue to love the French and this public that I have shared so much emotion with.”
Depardieu says he’s giving up his French passport and is pursuing Belgian residency.
A country is not a government, and a government is not a country. A patriot can disagree with his government’s policies. Or, as very popular American politician once said:
Just kidding. That was different because shut up.