‘Politics can no longer miss out on crypto,’ says ex French deputy and Macron ally Pierre Person
Defying France’s traditional financial systems and figures to convince them of the benefits of cryptocurrency was a sluggish battle for Pierre Person, a plucky 33-year-old who served as a member of France’s National Assembly for the past five years.
But as cryptocurrencies evolve to become more mainstream and with changes to the lower house of parliament following May’s legislative elections, which saw President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party lose its majority, Person, a former parliamentarian for LREM, is hopeful there will be more open-mindedness toward digital currencies.
“When I first started getting interested in it in 2017-2018, it was a very unknown subject, not mainstream,” he told Euronews Next at the International Financial Forum in Paris.
“I think our decision-makers see crypto in a different way. Now we see that more and more people have started to get interested in cryptos and so politics can no longer miss out”.
In September 2021, during Person’s tenure in the French Parliament, he tabled a series of crypto amendments before the Assembly, including a flat tax rate of 30 per cent on digital assets. He also requested French companies be able to pay their employees and partners in digital assets.
Many other deputies did not share his vision and the amendments were put on hold until 2023.
However, Macron’s party has kept on its pro-innovation path since its creation in 2016 and alongside the country’s economic stability, Person argues that “the government is in favour of the arrival of this capital to promote innovation”.
But Person said that the real question is also what image the Assembly wants to give about its stance on digital assets and digital currencies – and he hopes it will be an open one.
“Existing players,
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