Rivals Lash Out at French President
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — One day after President François Hollande outlined measures aimed at reining in France’s budget deficit and restoring economic growth, opponents lambasted him on Monday for failing to move quickly and decisively enough, after almost four months in office, to stave off the spiral of decline to which other euro zone economies have already succumbed. In a 20-minute television interview late Sunday, Mr. Hollande, who defeated President Nicolas Sarkozy in May, sought to deflect mounting criticism that his Socialist government had been too tentative in setting its course. He said that he was “in combat mode” and that the government’s policy response was “accelerating.” He gave himself two years to pull France out of its economic slump and vowed by the end of 2013 to put an end to rising unemployment, now at more than 10 percent. “I’m not going to do in four months what my predecessors haven’t done in 5 or 10 years,” he said. From the right, François Fillon, Mr. Sarkozy’s prime minister, derided Mr. Hollande’s proposals, which included a freeze on government spending, new taxes of €20 billion, or $26 billion, and €10 billion in spending cuts, as well as calls for more wage flexibility from labor unions. In a radio interview, Mr. Fillon said Mr. Hollande had brought little new definition to the ideas he put forth in the presidential campaign, evidence of “a president who is desperate, who talks a lot about timetables and methods in order to cover up a state of profound disarray.” From the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, eliminated in the first round of presidential voting, declared: “Thirty billion euros withdrawn from economic circulation in France — that necessarily, inevitably, absolutely spells collapse.” Marine Le Pen, who was the presidential candidate of the far-right National Front and was also eliminated in the first round, said Mr. Hollande had come across as “totally powerless” Sunday, “expressing some desire in matters of growth and some modest measures” that she said would hit hardest on the middle class and small businesses. Mr. Hollande used his prime-time interview slot to make official what experts and government insiders had been saying for months: that the French economy is rapidly grinding to a halt. The president conceded that the official growth forecast for this year — previously six-tenths of 1 percent of gross domestic product — had been revised to “barely above zero,” in line with most private economists’ predictions. For 2013, the prospects are for growth of “around 0.8 percent,” he said, down from 1.2 percent. Before the interview on Sunday, the government had identified around €7 billion in savings aimed at getting the deficit, now at 5.2 percent of G.D.P., down to around 4.5 percent by the end of this year. Revenue is set to increase through a series of tax measures to eliminate scores of exceptions and to increase the tax on income from dividends and stock options. France’s wealthiest households have been singled out in the budget for a 75 percent marginal tax on incomes above €1 million, up from a maximum of 41 percent, a step that some critics say risks driving needed investment and economic talent abroad. Mr. Hollande, who has been rapidly losing ground in opinion polls, confirmed Sunday that the government would go ahead with the plans to tax the superrich and took a swipe at Bernard Arnault, France’s wealthiest man, who earlier in the day disclosed that he had applied for dual Belgian citizenship, ostensibly for family and business reasons, which he did not detail. “He should have reflected on what it means to ask for another nationality, because we are proud to be French,” Mr. Hollande said of Mr. Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, whose personal fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $41 billion. “We have to call on patriotism at this time. Everyone must take part.” Mr. Arnault, who has been openly critical of Mr. Hollande’s tax plan, said in a statement that he planned to keep his French passport and would continue to pay French taxes. He added that his global luxury goods group would continue to create jobs here. During the campaign, Mr. Hollande spurned proposals that he said would be overly burdensome on poor and low-income families, like a temporary increase to the value-added tax on certain goods and services as favored by Mr. Sarkozy. He also promised to create 60,000 new teaching jobs and largely ruled out major cuts to the police and other public services. More precise details of the government’s 2013 budget will emerge at the end of the month, when it is formally submitted to Parliament. But that did not stop critics from accusing Mr. Hollande and his prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, of dithering in the face of a darkening economic reality. “I am very worried for France,” said another Sarkozy ally, Jean-François Copé, who along with Mr. Fillon is among several candidates vying to lead Mr. Sarkozy’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement. “I was the budget minister for three years and I have retained one lesson: that is, to reduce the deficit, one starts with cutting public spending and not by raising taxes.” Martine Aubry, leader of the Socialist Party, praised the president for showing a determination to “fight on all fronts to get our country out of the doldrums.” “He told the truth, but he also delivered a message of hope,” she said. “The measures will be fair, and at the end there will be success and progress.” |