French Left mocks Sarkozy over rock star tax exile

PARIS, Dec 17 (Reuters) France's Socialists mocked conservative presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy today over ageing rocker Johnny Hallyday's decision to flee French taxes, saying his friends were deserting him ahead of 2007 elections.

Hallyday, 63, one of the nation's biggest entertainers and a high-profile supporter of Interior Minister Sarkozy, said on Thursday that he was moving to Switzerland to escape French tax.

Opposition Socialists, spotting a chance to embarrass their opponent, taunted him over the decision.

''He (Hallyday) has decided to use this period before the election to go off and become a tax exile in Switzerland. That's a really nice way to support his chosen candidate,'' Socialist party leader Francois Hollande said on Radio J.

''If he really thought Nicolas Sarkozy could win, and was so convinced by his policies, he only had to wait four months.'' Sarkozy is the front-runner to represent the ruling UMP Gaullist party in presidential elections in April and May.

Socialist candidate Segolene Royal told a rally yesterday she had deliberately ''avoided having as a friend someone who escapes to Switzerland to pay their taxes''.

Hallyday, born Jean-Philippe Smet, will spend six months and one day a year in the Alpine resort of Gstaad to avoid French taxes that include a wealth tax on capital over 750,000 euros.

He had posed with Sarkozy to support the tough-talking politician's bid for president in September -- and warned him that he would leave France if Sarkozy did not keep his promises.

A group of conservative politicians tried to abolish the wealth tax last year, saying it was forcing many top-earners into self-imposed exile. Their bid failed and Sarkozy has not indicated that he would scrap it if he became president.

President Jacques Chirac said he valued Hallyday as a friend and an artist but regretted his actions as a citizen.

Sarkozy, anxious not to prolong the affair, has declined to comment directly on Hallyday's taxes but said on Friday the singer's decision was proof that something was wrong in France.

''I'd like everyone to believe that you can live in France even when you succeed. France should not only be a place that welcomes people deprived of education, papers and ambition.'' REUTERS AB BST0058