Gerard Depardieu Leaving France Because of High Taxes?

Gerard Depardieu wrote to the French Prime Minister stating his reasons for moving from France.  

Gerard Depardieu

Highlights of the letter include:

"I am leaving because you consider that success, creation, talent, anything different, must be punished.” 

“I paid $190 million in income taxes over 45 years,”

“leaving after paying, in 2012, an 85 percent tax-rate on my income”.

“80 people are working thanks to me, in companies that were created for them and are managed by them.”

Depardieu declared to the French Prime Minister, “I give you back my passport and my social security that I never used,”

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, responded to Depardieu's moving by calling him a “pathetic” character; the minister of labor, Michel Sapin, said he went into “personal degeneration;” the minister of culture, Aurélie Filippetti, was “totally scandalized;” the minister of the relations with the parliament, Alain Vitalies, was “shocked;” and the head of the Socialist Party, Harlem Désir, was “saddened.”

They all expected French citizens would join in the public shaming, but to their shock, it did not happen. 

An online poll conducted by the popular Le Parisien tabloid showed almost 70 per cent supporting Depardieu!  Will miracles never cease?   

If even the French can finally start to get it, it gives me hope!