Joseph Daul, Chairman of the EPP Group - Daul, took note of the election of Francois Hollande to the Presidency of the
French Republic, and said he hoped that France continues to meet its European
commitments, including the Fiscal Pact Treaty. The Chairman of the main
European Parliamentary Group (center-right) congratulated the outgoing
President, Nicolas Sarkozy, for his remarkable commitment to Europe, including
during the French Presidency of the Union and in managing the debt crisis.
"Nicolas Sarkozy has, in close collaboration with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, and with all the European partners, taken the measures required to
address national public finances and restore confidence in the ability of Europe
to emerge of the crisis. He also had the courage, domestically, to make
fundamental reforms in the areas of pensions and higher education, among others.
These reforms will serve his country well". Joseph Daul believes that the
essential growth policy which must be implemented alongside the policy of sound
management of public finances, should not result in additional spending as "we
no longer have the means."
IN GERMANY...(THE IVth Reich) : The governing Christian Democrats and the opposition Social Democrats (SPD)
are neck-and-neck in opinion polls. The CDU and its struggling coalition partner, the Free Democrats, look set to
lose their majority in the state legislature.But the SPD and the Greens could also struggle to muster a majority. The vote comes ahead of another vital electoral test for Mrs Merkel -
elections in Germany's most populous state, North-Rhine Westphali....The collapse of the liberal FDP in recent opinion polls could deprive Mrs
Merkel of her coalition partner in federal elections due in 2013. The party has
now lost all its seats in five state legislatures. The vote in Schleswig-Holstein is seen as hinging on whether the Free
Democrats can achieve the minimum 5% of the vote needed to gain
representation. In the latest state election, in Saarland in March, the FDP only won 2% of
the vote. Early polling in Schleswig-Holstein indicated the FDP would fail to
reach 5%....But the latest surveys suggest they could just scrape in.
Another deciding factor could be the performance of the new Pirate Party,
which looks likely to win seats in the state parliament....The party, which campaigns on "digital rights" issues, has already pulled off
a string of surprise state election successes, winning seats in Saarland, as
well as in Berlin last year.
However, a party representing the state's small Danish-speaking minority,
which has guaranteed representation, could also help the SPD and the Greens to
form a government.
Joseph Daul, Chairman of the EPP Group, welcomed the decision of the Greek
people to entrust Nea Demokratia with the most votes in today's elections.
The Chairman of the EPP Group said: "Greece is an indispensable
and undeniable part of Europe. We recognise there will be difficulties in
creating a new government in Greece, according to election results so far.
However we wish the Chairman of Nea Demokratia Antonis Samaras success in the
difficult negotiations to form a coalition government and we support all of his
efforts towards guaranteeing the European course of the country and bringing it
back on the path of economic recovery and growth."
9 comments:
Mrs Merkel was quick to call and congratulate Mr Hollande, inviting him to Berlin “as soon as possible” for talks.
“It is a thunderclap for Europe,” said Arnaud Montebourg, a senior Socialist likely to enter the Cabinet. “This shows that the Europe of austerity must be turned into a Europe of growth.”
Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, also hailed the French Socialist victory as a development that would weaken the Conservative-led coalition.
“This new leadership is sorely needed as Europe seeks to escape from austerity. And it matters to Britain,” he said.
Greek elections have also delivered a hammer blow to the eurozone’s austerity policies after over 60 per cent of the vote went to far-Left and Right-wing parties opposed austerity measures that are a condition of an EU-IMF bail-out and Greek membership of the euro.
There are concerns that Mr Hollande will be unable to respect fiscal discipline targets while enacting a tax — and-spend programme that would see him create 60,000 more state education posts, partly revoke a pension reform and slap a 75 per cent tax on millionaire owners.
A senior Conservative source told The Daily Telegraph that fears France was about to reverse course would cause turmoil and uncertainty.
He said: “Clearly it’s going to focus a lot of market attention on the French public finances, which are nothing to write home about. I don’t think it is going to make life in the bond markets any easier next week.
“We haven’t chosen austerity because it’s fun. We have to do austerity, and so does France.
“He will have to be very careful about his public spending commitments and the lack of welfare reform.”
David Cameron, the Prime Minister who had given his backing to Mr Sarkozy, called Mr Hollande to congratulate him on his victory. “They both look forward to working very closely together in the future,” said a Downing Street spokesman
I'm not the slightest bit convinced that austerity itself will solve anything. There has to be at least some limited spending on growth promotion initiatives - and 'moderately drastic' ones at that - using a 'best bang for your buck' strategy.
But I fear Hollande will just spend his country's cash on placating the French demand for their "birthright endowment" - aka state hand-outs to allow the people to "maintain the standard of living that they have become accustomed to" - to coin a legal term from typical spousal support court cases.
Unfortunately, by the time they realise this pipe dream is unsustainable, this straw will have broken the camel's back, and they'll quickly go into meltdown with the rest of the EZ.
The blackest of clouds are on the horizon.
Not much will change. The election result is just a punishment for Sarkozy who ignored the mood of the French.
France is not working - 35 hour week, retirement at 60, high unemployment. Such factors are totally incompatible with the necessary productivity for growth.
Promising a hammering of the high-earners, above €1m I believe, with 75% tax in order to please the blinkered 'anti-rich' electorate was preposterous but it worked for stateist Hollande.
So sad to read the comments on the strength of the "market". In business where a few companies bring in "stuff" made in slave countries working to only self- destroy but in another way, is NOT a market economy. OK, so a few of the countries business people prosper only because they can reap huge profits because of their "trade" position. People see through that as they are charged the same price for products as if they were made by local citizens. This can only go on so long.
The few that profit by dividends because they play the same game as the above business people have their cake to eat but only for a short while.
Therefore, what will prove to be stable ( since Europe has no more distant lands to conquer will be a "steady-state-sustainable-eco-system based economy. You all will be surprised when people actually get together, clean up their act ( prevent greed, cheating, corruption and dismissing their responsibility) a set a goal/an aim/ an objective, what and how much can actually be done. One would think that people from a place that has seen 7 year wars, 100 year wars, continual world wars, would eventually SEE that there IS ANOTHER WAY and thus will produce an economic system that reflects this ( which in turn means that they MUST leave behind the stupid market economy which actually is not an economy at all.
The line that got my interest was this
"People see through that as they are charged the same price for products as if they were made by local citizens."
The reason we pay more in the developed world is because of marketing costs. Companies bid to win our favour. That doesn't change regardless of what the cost of production is.
You will never stop corruption. Greasing the palm is how things get done.
And remember, a lot of the huge profits exist to pay people a pension and life insurance.
"which in turn means that they MUST leave behind the stupid market economy"
The alternative is a government managed and funded economy. In this type of economy the type of work you do and the pay you receive is dictated by government.
The choice is slave to the market economy, or slave to the government economy.
Before August, he wants to sign off get banking reform, separating retail from speculation.
"If he wants to get reforms done he needs to move as fast as possible to take advantage of the few months the conservatives will be mired in infighting," said an influential French business chief. "He's basically got the summer to play with."
The Hollande team stressed that fiscal and economic reforms would be based on supply-side changes, but that Hollande will also demand European "protectionist" measures on trade policy to try to reduce France's €70bn external trade deficit, the German memo said.
"It is absolutely essential to generate growth but this can only be accomplished by supply-side measures and is no longer possible through state spending programmes," the Hollande team told the German diplomats.
The new president wants to introduce a tax on financial transactions – a Tobin tax – but would not do so unilaterally, the diplomats reported. Hollande insisted that any revenue from the Tobin tax could not be used for deficit reduction, but only for investment purposes in the battle to restore France's waning competitiveness
Three leading enemies of the new leader were arrested at a 20,000-strong demonstration in Moscow against his “authoritarian” rule.
Around 200 more were detained by baton-wielding police after demonstrators tried to surge across a river towards the Kremlin through heavily guarded lines.
The arrests were seen as a sign of a new hardline approach as Putin – who has served as prime minister for the past four years – takes back Russia’s top job today in a lavish Kremlin ceremony where he will be blessed by the head of the Orthodox Church.
Arrested were Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, Aleksey Navalny, a blogger who has inspired a new generation of Russians and Leftist Sergei Udaltsov, who was seized by armed officers while making a speech.
All were hauled into waiting police vehicles.
President Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now mayor of Chicago, doesn't think François Hollande is presidential material, thank you very much.
"To me, [Hollande] has more of the head of a prime minister than of a president," Emanuel told a group at the French ambassador's residence, according to a Libération report (quotation translated back into English from the French). Emanuel added that in his professional opinion Hollande isn't going to be able to grow into the job, either.
Libération also wades into one of the loonier aspects of the French election as interpreted by Americans. The paper quotes a Washington diplomat as saying that the new French president better get somebody over here pronto to explain to the American market that even though Hollande is a member of the Socialist Party, he's not actually a socialist, or at least not like that.
"What I'd suggest to Francois Hollande is to send very quickly a representative to New York, to reassure the markets which are very nervous," the paper quotes an anonymous official as saying. "The word 'socialist' still makes investors here afraid."
We're certain that President Obama – socialist-in-chief to some of his sharper critics – would love to appear with Hollande on a multi-state barnstorming tour to open a discussion with Americans about what socialism is and how neither man embodies it.
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