Nicolas Sarkozy sets out stall with a message of austerity

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy revealed his economic manifesto for re-election yesterday, with a focus on reducing the country’s debt and a warning that his Socialist rival would lead the country towards the fate of Greece or Spain.

Mr Sarkozy has pledged to achieve a budget surplus for the first time since 1974 and cut France’s swelling debt if re-elected on 6 May.

Presenting an austere manifesto less than three weeks before the first round of voting on 22 April, Mr Sarkozy said he would put a “golden rule” to parliament in July committing France to balance its budget as promised to European partners.

“Some countries in Europe are on the edge of a precipice today. We cannot refuse to make the historic choice of competitiveness, innovation and reducing public spending,” said the conservative incumbent, who trails Socialist Francois Hollande in all polls for the decisive run-off.

“To depart even slightly from the commitments France has made would mean a crisis of confidence,” he said.

Mr Sarkozy, who presided over an explosion of debt and deficit after the 2008 financial crisis, said his programme would generate a budget surplus of 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2017 after achieving balance in 2016, and public debt would fall to 80.6 per cent from a peak of 89.4 per cent in 2013.

He said he was sending out a 36-page letter to the French people, setting out his promises in writing. The aim was to reconcile supporters and opponents of European integration and winners and losers of globalisation.

Mr Hollande said he would order an audit of public finances if elected, a day after he set out his own 60-day programme of the first emergency economic measures.

“We’ll have the Court of Auditors carry out an evaluation immediately – and freeze certain spending once we have the results,” Mr Hollande said.

The move appeared designed to prepare the ground for austerity measures that could be blamed on his predecessor’s stewardship of France’s debt and deficit. The battle over debt and deficit came after a cover story in the Economist weekly entitled “France in Denial” made waves in political circles by accusing both leading candidates of lacking serious ideas for tackling the country’s economic and fiscal problems.

Mr Sarkozy said Mr Hollande’s plan to immediately lower the retirement age back to 60 from 62 for people who started work at age 18 or younger showed it was the Socialist who was in denial.

“That proposal alone is a negation of the existence of the crisis, and the existence of an outside world,” he said.

Latest opinion polls show Mr Sarkozy slightly ahead or level with Hollande in the first round. But all show Hollande ahead with at least 53 and up to 56 per cent of voting intentions for the decisive second ballot.

The Socialists derided Mr Sarkozy for waiting until so late to produce a comprehensive manifesto.

“It’s not very serious,” said Socialist Party chief Martine Aubry, who made a point of noting that Mr Hollande had presented a fully costed manifesto in January, he said.