The decision of France’s top chef to forsake his nationality and become a Monégasque, as the inhabitants of Monaco are known, has fuelled bitterness among affluent Frenchmen about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s failure to abolish the country’s punitive wealth tax.

Alain Ducasse, whose culinary empire includes 21 restaurants in eight countries, was the latest of several French celebrities and captains of industry to avoid paying the tax by going into exile. The exodus is an embarrassment to a president who had pledged to do away with France’s “down-with-the-rich” mentality.

The defection of this global ambassador of French cuisine who has more Michelin stars than any other – 14, including, at one time, three-star rankings in three countries – triggered a noisy political row about a tax of 0.55% to 1.8% that is levied each year on assets above £500,000.

“The inertia of the French government on this matter is incomprehensible,” said Lionnel Luca, an MP in Sarkozy’s own centre-right party. Even Spain’s left-wing government had done away with wealth tax, he noted.

As part of his pledge to make France more competitive, Sarkozy changed the law to ensure that nobody pays more than 50% of his or her income in taxes, compared with 60% under his predecessor. Under the old system, the rich could end up paying more in taxes than they were earning because of the additional tax on their assets, including works of art.

However, Sarkozy has stopped short of attacking the wealth tax, disappointing friends such as Johnny Hallyday, the rock idol, who fled to Switzerland in protest over the tax introduced 25 years ago by François Mitterrand, the Socialist president, and that now brings in an estimated £3.5 billion a year.

With his approval rating far lower than when he was elected, however, Sarkozy is reluctant to risk being accused of pandering to the wealthy in a country whose qualms about capitalism are a legacy of the revolution.

A movement in parliament has been launched to get principal residences, at least, exempted from the tax.

A property boom in some regions of France – driven in part by the British appetite for the French idyll – has pushed up prices so much that even a cottage and a field or two can make people of modest means a target for the tax.

It is estimated that two families leave France every day to avoid paying wealth tax.

French citizens cannot avoid paying taxes in Monaco unless they become citizens but only a few dozen are admitted to this exclusive club each year and it is up to Prince Albert, ruler of the “rock”, to decide whom to let in.

Ducasse, a farmer’s son who began his restaurant career at 16, had a good case for citizenship. It was there that he earned his first three-star ranking, for the Louis XV restaurant in Monte Carlo. He had taken it over in 1987 after being urged by Prince Rainier, Albert’s father, to create a top-class restaurant in Monaco.

“From the beginning I have found in Monaco unfailing support,” said Ducasse last week. “There, I am at the heart of this Mediterranean culture which inspires me so much and which I am trying to make blossom all over the world.”

Ducasse, 51, denied that he had given up French nationality only for tax reasons. “I feel more like a Monégasque – it’s to do with the heart,” he said.

Philippe Marini, a senator in Sarkozy’s party campaigning for abolition of the tax, said it was hardly surprising that Ducasse had chosen to give up his French nationality. “He has opted for a country more welcoming than France for his personal wealth,” he said.

France’s loss is Britain’s gain: 11% of tax exiles have taken up residence among les rosbifs.

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