If language acrobatics were an Olympic discipline, Michel Barnier would not be far from the gold medal. The government is deploying a wealth of flexibility. On the one hand, he must cajole the National Assembly, where almost everyone is urging him to let go of the floodgates of public spending.
On the other, there are the financial markets, increasingly suspicious, but also the European Commission which began proceedings this summer against France for excessive deficit. With sanctions, let's not forget, a fine of 2.5 billion euros.
It is in this context that France has pushed the art of double discourse very far. In Brussels, the Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand pleads rigor, firm commitments, “this time, it’s sworn, we’re going to be serious”and then barely got off the train, Gare du Nord in Paris, “everything can be negotiated”, “we can improve”, “we will find compromises”.
A plan negotiated with the European Commission
This week, the Commission gave France satisfaction regarding its public finance recovery plan and Antoine Armand loudly congratulated himself. Except that the plan on which the Commission decided dates from the end of October and since then, the government has accumulated renunciations, for example on reductions in charges, and on local authorities. There are at least 7 or 8 billion.
What was promised in Brussels last month has already expired and make no mistake, Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said this week, if France is not on track with what it announced, there will be a second pass.
In defense of Michel Barnier, double discourse is a French tradition. Since European financial rules existed, that is to say since the creation of the euro, we have almost never kept our commitments to Brussels. In this matter, France scrupulously applies the doctrine developed by the late Jean Yanne, who was also a figure of the Grosses Têtes, and who said, I quote: “I am loyal to my neighborhood.”
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