Paolo Rotelli, the Italian billionaire heir and rapper known as MC Pao, who counts Monaco as his home, has ignited a fierce backlash after a combative appearance on French television this week, with clips from the interview spreading rapidly online and drawing widespread criticism over what many viewers called an outright display of class contempt.
Rotelli appeared on BFM TV’s Le Forum programme on Thursday, September 3, hosted by Maxime Switek, for a debate centred on whether billionaires represent a solution to national debt. It came just two days after another high-profile television appearance on Cyril Hanouna’s Tout Beau Tout Neuf, part of a wider media push from the 37-year-old, who has built a following of more than 600,000 across Instagram and TikTok around an unapologetically extravagant online persona, complete with champagne showers, cash thrown in the air, and glimpses into an ultra-luxurious lifestyle.
Rotelli, who inherited a fortune estimated at €200 million in 2013, told the panel he receives around €20 million in annual dividends and spends the full amount without holding anything back. Holding only an Italian passport, he pays no income tax in France, and leaned heavily on a single justification for his spending during the debate: consumption tax. He argued that a €200,000 dinner at a top Parisian restaurant translates to roughly €40,000 in VAT handed directly to the French state. Pressed by Switek on whether spending such a sum on a single meal ever gave him pause, Rotelli reportedly answered without hesitation that it didn’t bother him in the slightest, a response Monaco-Matin describes as having visibly stunned other guests on set, including activist Kevin, who responded with disbelief at the idea that billionaires aren’t a drain on society.
The exchange grew increasingly heated once labour union figure Jean-Pierre Mercier joined the discussion, accusing Rotelli of having inherited his wealth without ever having worked for it, and of defending a system built on exploitation while ordinary people struggle to get by. Rotelli, undeterred, argued that without billionaires, Europe wouldn’t have access to companies like Apple, Microsoft, Uber or Deliveroo, before adding a remark widely seen as tone-deaf: that his own gardener drives a Range Rover, while graduates of prestigious business schools struggle to find work.
Since the broadcast, clips of the exchange have circulated widely on social media, fuelling a wave of public anger directed at what many commentators described as blatant class disdain, extending well beyond Rotelli’s usual online audience and into the wider French public.
Viewers in Monaco will be able to hear more directly from Rotelli himself, with an interview set to air next week with NEWS.MC on Monaco Info.