François Hollande has bent over backwards since becoming France’s president to avoid provoking the Gallic propensity to strike.

自当选法国总统以来，弗朗索瓦•奥朗德(François Hollande)一直在努力避免激发法国人的罢工倾向。

Now, of all unlikely sources, he faces a weekend of strike action by the country’s football clubs, who have instructed players to hang up their boots in protest against his 75 per cent income tax rate.

但现在，他可能迎来持续整个周末的最出乎意料的一场罢工。法国的足球俱乐部吩咐球员拒绝出赛，以抗议奥朗德的75%收入税政策。

Angrily condemning the “unfair and discriminatory” tax for threatening to cripple struggling clubs, Jean-Pierre Louvel, head of the UCPF professional football club union, said yesterday: “We are talking about the death of French football.”

法国职业足球俱乐部联盟(UCPF)主席让-皮埃尔•卢韦尔(Jean-Pierre Louvel)昨天愤怒地指责该税“不公、歧视”，有可能严重影响财务状况不佳的俱乐部。他表示：“法国足球面临着生死存亡。”

The unprecedented strike – involving cancellation of all matches in the final week of November – presents a new challenge for Mr Hollande, who suffers from deep unpopularity and is struggling to emerge from a furious controversy over the deportation of a Roma schoolgirl and her family.

这场史无前例的罢工将导致11月最后一周的比赛全部取消，并对奥朗德提出全新挑战。奥朗德民意支持率极低，难以走出驱逐一位罗姆族女生及其家人所引发的激烈争议。

The 75 per cent tax, a key Hollande election pledge that is set to take effect next year, will be levied on employers who must pay it for two years on annual salaries above €1m.

75%收入税的政策是奥朗德参选时的重要承诺，定于明年实施。雇主必须为年薪100万欧元以上的个人缴纳该税，为期两年。

The UCPF insists that the tax will have a devastating effect on French clubs, which are mostly lossmaking and struggle to compete for players with Spanish, English, German and Italian rivals, despite the recent injection of vast funds into Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco by deep-pocketed foreign buyers.

UCPF坚持认为，该税将对法国俱乐部产生毁灭性的影响。尽管富有的外国买家近期为巴黎圣日耳曼(Paris Saint-Germain，见上图)和摩纳哥(Monaco)注入巨资，但法国俱乐部仍大多处于亏损状态，难以和西班牙、英格兰、德国和意大利俱乐部争夺球员。

The clubs say the tax will cost them collectively €44m a year. They say clubs and their players paid €700m in tax and social contributions last year – more than they earned in television rights. “We are already the most taxed league in Europe and the other leagues are already much stronger,” said Mr Louvel.

各俱乐部表示，这项税务每年总共将耗费它们4400万欧元。它们表示，各俱乐部和球员去年总共缴纳了7亿欧元的税款和社会贡献，超过了俱乐部的电视转播权收入。“我们已经是欧洲税负最重的联赛，而且其他联赛的水平已经大大强于我们了。”