If you look at the François Hollande's first 100 days, what to say: he managed quite well, but it didn't go beyond enough. As a good Frenchman graduated from the grandes écoles, he had made his own plan, to be implemented in the first 100 days of the mandate, the "change agenda”, presented in the middle of the electoral campaign. If you go through that list now (precisely yesterday, Tuesday, the deadline we arrived at), you can see that most (although not all) of the commitments have been honoured. But it was also the easiest job to do.
In a nutshell, a certain Sarkozyst system of privileges has been destroyed, which perhaps was not such a difficult work. Now, in what they call la rentrée in Paris, at the beginning of September, Hollande has to put his hand to the construction phase, which is much more tiring. Guy, comprehensive tax reform. And a 360 Budget, decisive, if France wants to respect the pacts with Europe (for next year the goal is to bring the public deficit down to 3% of GDP, while at the end of 2012 it will still remain over 4%, after filing the last year with 5,2%). All of this sliding towards an autumn that will inexorably mark the beginning of the recession in France as well. In short, dear François, the worst is just about to begin. Not to mention that unemployment is now close to 10%. And above all, they have also begun to fire "historic" groups such as Peugeot-Citroen and Air France.
But let's get back to what has already been done in these months of "pink" revolution, the return of the left to the Elysée. The socialist president has dismantled a whole series of privileges bequeathed by Nicolas Sarkozy. He had reduced the patrimonial (Isf), Hollande immediately weighed her down. And she has retouched up the taxes paid on large inheritances. THE'social VAT, a transfer of social security contributions from companies to value added tax (that is, directly to consumers' hunchbacks), wanted by Sarkozy at the end of his mandate, was repealed by Hollande even before its entry into force. If in 2007, as soon as he was elected, the conservative president had concentrated all his energies on the introduction of a tax shelter in favor of the super rich, his successor, on the other hand, proceeded (as promised in the change agenda) to review at the raise the Smic, the minimum wage indicated by law. Not only that: he passed a decree against high rents and another for limit the salaries of managers of public companies to a maximum of 450 euros gross per annum. Hollande also has brought down to 60 the retirement age of those who can boast a particularly long working career. It is one of those measures that a country with a public debt now at 90% of GDP probably will not be able to maintain in the medium to long term. Perhaps a measure that Hollande himself will have to renege on if, as many predict, he too, like his putative father François Mitterrand, will have to recover at a certain moment from the swerve to the left at the beginning of his mandate.
We return tochange agenda. Yup, most of the measures have been carried out. But some are missing. They have been postponed since September, together with theapproval of the 2013 budget (and that they are often connected), the first real obstacle for Hollande to overcome. Among other measures there is a comprehensive tax reform, with the elimination of the majority of the so-called "fiscal niches", various exemptions provided for privileged categories (even journalists...). Even Sarkozy had tried but failed. Hollande also wants to introduce a 75% tax on any personal income exceeding one million euros per year gross: a measure at the center of a thousand controversies. The promise to block the price of fuel for three months has remained unfulfilled. Hollande has left aside the most difficult and contested projects… Then there remain the promises of a structural change in the French economy, prey to a furious relocation for years now, with the consequent abandonment of the manufacturing tradition. All this in such a difficult economic context for France, halfway between the stability of Germany and the black crisis of Southern Europe. Closer and closer to Italy and Spain.
Meanwhile the French in front of Hollande appear decidedly less enthusiastic than 100 days ago. In a survey published in recent days by Ifop, an institute deemed reliable, 54% of French people said they were "dissatisfied" with what the new president has done so far. But 57% defined him as "capable of keeping his electoral promises". Monsieur Hollande, pay attention to this rentrée…
