French Candidate Assails Plan for Greece
Share with others:
PARIS -- The front-runner for the French presidency, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, criticized European policy on Greece on Monday, saying that mandatory austerity measures were too severe and would never produce the desired results because "everyone knows" that "there is no rebound in growth in Europe and in Greece."
Mr. Hollande's remarks, one day after the Greek Parliament adopted austerity measures demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, while violent protests left many buildings in Athens in flames, offered a critical assessment of European and Greek leaders' handling of the crisis. The Greek government, he said, would "have a short life," while the austerity plan forced on Greece amounted to a "purge."
The French presidential race is heating up with President Nicolas Sarkozy expected to make his candidacy for re-election official this week. Mr. Sarkozy is still running behind Mr. Hollande in the opinion polls for both the first round of voting on April 22 and in a runoff on May 6. In a luncheon interview with a group of foreign journalists here, Mr. Hollande was pleasant and expansive, but remained vague on the details of his programs.
But predictably, he was sharper about what he saw as the failures of Mr. Sarkozy and other European leaders. While there had certainly been a failure of Greek governance, Mr. Hollande said, there was also "a failure of European governance."
Greece should have been tackled sooner, with a larger bailout fund to substitute for a part of public debt and to bring it down to 60 percent of gross domestic product, he said, with both public and private creditors sharing the burden. Or the European Central Bank could have lent directly to Greece, he said, although that is banned by its charter.
The point is not to allow Greece to escape belt-tightening and reform, Mr. Hollande said. But without growth there was no way out for Greece, he said. He predicted that after private investors discounted their holdings by about 70 percent, public debt would also have to be restructured.
"Everyone wanted to treat Greece with ordinary measures," Mr. Hollande said. "It was necessary to treat Greece with extraordinary measures," and now the situation in Greece is almost intolerable, with the government blocked. "Who is paying taxes today in Greece? It's a real question," he said. "The wealthiest people -- there are plenty in Greece -- have gotten on their escape boats, they've left. And the poorest people are in the underground economy."
First Published February 14, 2012 12:01 am
