February 13, 2012
The front-runner for the French presidency, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, criticized European policy on Greece on Monday, saying that mandatory austerity measures were too severe and would never produce the desired results because “everyone knows” that “there is no rebound in growth in Europe and in Greece.”
Mr. Hollande’s remarks, one day after the Greek Parliament adopted austerity measures demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, while violent protests left many buildings in Athens in flames, offered a critical assessment of European and Greek leaders’ handling of the crisis. The Greek government, he said, would “have a short life,” while the austerity plan forced on Greece amounted to a “purge.”
The French presidential race is heating up with President Nicolas Sarkozy expected to make his candidacy for re-election official this week. Mr. Sarkozy is still running behind Mr. Hollande in the opinion polls for both the first round of voting on April 22 and in a runoff on May 6. In a luncheon interview with a group of foreign journalists here, Mr. Hollande was pleasant and expansive, but remained vague on the details of his programs.
But predictably, he was sharper about what he saw as the failures of Mr. Sarkozy and other European leaders. While there had certainly been a failure of Greek governance, Mr. Hollande said, there was also “a failure of European governance.”
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