Paris   -    Left-wing parties in France on Friday pledged to raise 30 billion euros a year from taxing businesses and the rich if they win a majority at snap parliamentary polls, drawing ire from centrists and business leaders. The promises to fund new welfare handouts come as the left tries to catch up to the lead of the far-right National Rally (RN) in the polls -- both of them well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s camp. Socialists, Greens, Communists and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) would “immediately reinstate a wealth tax with a climate component” to bring in “15 billion euros” ($16 billion) if they enter government, Socialist senator Alexandre Ouizille told journalists in Paris. A tax on businesses’ windfall profits would bring in a further 15 billion euros, the New Popular Front (NPF) alliance predicts.