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发帖数: 29846 | 1 President François Hollande attempted to re-launch his struggling
presidency last night by promising to re-build a strong France for a "new
generation" and a "new world".
In a press conference seen as a critical opportunity to set a new tone and a
new direction after a much-criticised first six months in office, Mr
Hollande sought to abandon his image as a bumbling and laid-back "President
Normal" and tried to define himself instead as a hands-on "President
Responsible".
"I've made the choice of reform… I am not preparing the fate of the next
election but of the next generation," President Hollande said. "I wish to be
a president who is worthy of the very serious situation in which our
country finds itself." France was grappling, he said, "not just with a new
crisis but a new world".
In his successful presidential campaign last spring, Mr Hollande promised
that he would be a coherent and consistent President who would bring change
with "justice". He is accused – by both the right and some on the left –
of being incoherent in his message, inconsistent in his policies and moving
too slowly in the face of economic stagnation and rising unemployment.
Mr Hollande's approval rating, which was more than 60 per cent at the start
of the summer, has slumped to the high 30s – the steepest fall of any head
of state since France switched to presidential politics 50 years ago. The
popularity of his Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, has crashed even
further.
The President made no new proposals at the press conference. He said that no
French government had taken "so many decisions so quickly" on the two evils
"undermining" France: the public debt and flagging industrial
competitiveness. He admitted that he may have failed to convey a sense of
direction or urgency but hinted that part of the blame for his plunge in
popularity must lie with the impatience of the French electorate.
"Our national debt is more than 90 per cent of our national wealth;
unemployment is rising; our competitiveness is constantly falling," he said.
"A change of government changes those in power. It does not change the
world.
"I understand the worries of the French people but the only thing that
counts is not today's opinion polls but the state of France in five years.
The decline of France is not inevitable."
President Hollande is trapped between the realities of France's perilous
economic position and the expectations he raised during his campaign, when
he spoke of "putting the magic back into the French dream".
He was much criticised on the left last week – and some Greens threatened
to leave the governing coalition – when he accepted the main lines of an
official report on France's flagging ability to compete industrially. During
the campaign, Mr Hollande criticised President Nicholas Sarkozy for cutting
the heavy payroll taxes which fund the French welfare state and imposing
VAT rises to make up the shortfall.
Last week Mr Hollande and Mr Ayrault agreed to give a |
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