It is an increasingly worried Hollande who presents himself at the press conference in Brussels after the meeting with the president of the Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. The French president acknowledges the official entry in recession of his country (“the situation is very serious”) and asks Europe “to show the same determination on the revival of growth that it has shown on the consolidation of public finances”.
And this will "inevitably require a compromise between France and Germany", said Francois Hollande at the press conference in Brussels. In short, Berlin needs to loosen its grip on austerity, and perhaps also give the transalpines more time to meet the deficit reduction objectives. When asked about relations with the new Italian government, Hollande said that "with Prime Minister Enrico Letta we can work in a good spirit" but he rejected the hypothesis of a common Paris-Rome front against Berlin. "France does not intend to make alliances with Italy against Germany, she would not be in the interests of Europe and I have never done similar things". Moreover, before concluding, Hollande did not fail to report that next week he will meet the German chancellor Angela Merkel before the European summit.
