elections Archives - IREF Europe

French austerity measures – more taxes and unconvincing plans to balance the budget

IREF — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:27:58 +0000

For the French government, it is more than ever urgent to convince everyone that the State deficit is moving in the right direction and the public debt is sustainable. In the context of an uncertain future for the French credit rating triple A note, the present debate on the budget of the State for the coming year and the austerity measures it includes became a really hot issue. The initial project of budget for 2012 has been already adopted by the Financial Commission at the French National Assembly and is now being discussed by the deputies.

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In next year’s presidential elections, voters will choose between statism of the left and statism of the right.

IREF — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:11:12 +0000

This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal

In next year's French presidential elections, it seems increasingly likely that voters will be asked to choose between two types of statism: statism of the left and statism of the right. Over the weekend François Hollande won the final round of the Socialist Party primaries, handily besting party leader Martine Aubry, and is now set to face off against France's ostensibly center-right president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Nicolas Sarkozy’s Perestroika

IREF — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:13:19 +0000

This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on March 18, 2010

In the wake of his party's crushing defeat in regional elections, it's time to take stock of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency, three years on. As in the USSR between 1985 and 1991, France has of late experienced a period of perestroika: The government recognizes the need to reform the system, but is simultaneously trying to save it. The hitch is that the system itself is unreformable. It must be replaced.

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