Promising to balance the budget by 2016, he said parliament would pass a “golden
rule” in July obliging governments to have a plan to balance their
books.
The Right-winger said he would continue to reduce the size of the French
state, mainly by replacing half of retiring state sector workers and would
save 115 billion euros – three quarters through cuts and the rest via tax
rises.
“We cannot refuse to make the historic choice of competitiveness,
innovation and reducing public spending,” he said.
He also confirmed his commitment to freeze France’s contribution to the
European Union’s common budget – a measure Britain and seven other EU
nations back – which he said would save 600 million euros per year.
Mr Hollande published his 60-point presidential plan back in January and on
Wednesday detailed the calendar for his first year in office. Immediate
measures included capping fuel prices, introducing a 75 per cent supertax on
high earners, and partially reversing a pension reform. He also intends to
amend the EU fiscal pact to add a growth chapter.
Seeking to reassure the French and markets that he would not go on a spending
spree, the Socialist promised to order the Court of Auditors to “carry
out an evaluation immediately … and freeze certain spending once we have
the results”.
But Mr Sarkozy warned that Mr Hollande would be hamstrung by leftists, warning
it would take “two days to knock down five years of (economic)
efforts” if the Socialist won. “Today, the sanction is immediate.”
Mr Sarkozy said he had printed six million copies of a “Letter to the
French people” outlining his pledge to short circuit “elites”
and “intermediaries” through referendums on welfare and
immigration. There was a chapter on security and the Toulouse murders, and
another warning against Europe becoming a “sieve” to illegal
immigration.
He also called for a mass rally of the “silent majority” to support
him on Paris’ central Place de la Concorde on April 15 – a week before the
first ballot. Mr Hollande will hold a mega-rally the same day in Villepinte,
outside the capital.
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