Nicolas Sarkozy warned French voters Thursday they should re-elect him as president to pursue his cost-cutting plans or face the kind of debt crises that have gripped Greece and Spain. | Or elect him and end up like Italy... |
"Certain countries in Europe are today on the edge of a precipice," he warned, promising that under his continued leadership France could rediscover "competitiveness, innovation, investment, reduced spending."
Sarkozy accused his Socialist challenger Francois Hollande of promising "a festival of new spending that no-one knows how to pay for, as if the world did not exist, Europe did not exist, the crisis did not exist.
"The situation today that our Spanish friends are going through, that our Greek friends have gone through, reminds us of reality. Look at the situation in Spain, after seven years of Socialist rule," he said.
Spain's budget minister admitted this week that Madrid is in a "critical situation" as government debt and unemployment surge higher -- mirroring the problems that led Greece to seek an EU and IMF bail-out last year.
Hollande responded with scorn, declaring the manifesto launch contained no ideas that had not been floated before, and arguing that it demonstrated that Sarkozy "has nothing to offer but austerity".
"It's a extension of his mistakes and failures. He planned a great event, then nothing came of it. All the measures he picked out, we'd heard before. It's like his record in office, but worse," said Hollande.