John Keiger John Keiger

France could plunge the eurozone into its next crisis

The country is dancing on a debt volcano

Emmanuel Macron and Christine Lagarde (Credit: Getty images)

In the French presidential elections, and now in the legislatives that will close on Sunday evening, the one issue kept under the carpet is finance. Neither the centrist Macronista grouping ‘Ensemble!’, nor the far-left Corbynista-like Nupes coalition of Jean-Luc Mélenchon has updated the electorate on how their manifestos are to be funded. And yet over the last month French finances have deteriorated dramatically. Neither programme has the slightest chance of being implemented without plunging French finances, and thus the eurozone generally, into a new sovereign debt crisis. France is dancing on a debt volcano.

The unabashedly ideological Nupes programme calls for nationalisation of the banking and energy sectors, motorways, strategic industries, raising the minimum wage to €1,500 (£1,500) a month, increasing paid holidays from five to six weeks, cutting the working week for certain sectors from 35 to 32 hours and reducing the pension age from 62 to 60. Not to mention the European Central Bank nullifying all member states’ debt.

John Keiger
Written by
John Keiger

Professor John Keiger is the former research director of the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge. He is the author of France and the Origins of the First World War.

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