A few hours from victory of François Hollande in the French presidential elections, after the customary pleasantries, Germany puts its hands forward. The spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert, warns that “it is not possible” to renegotiate the European pact on strengthening budgetary discipline.
"You cannot change line at every election and if the Pact were reviewed - added the chancellor in person, according to reports from Dow Jones - Greece too would like a new agreement" on the terms on the basis of which it was granted European and international. Instead, "it is of the utmost importance" that Greece fully implements the commitments made on fiscal consolidation and structural reforms.
In short, hands off the "fiscal compact": the terms of the agreement cannot be changed before even starting to go down the path of rigor. An obvious clarification from Berlin, and yet necessary, considering the intentions clearly expressed during the electoral campaign by the new socialist tenant of the Elysée. Hollande immediately proposed himself to French voters as the man of growth, to necessarily be added to the austerity chapter.
The policies of financial austerity, according to the number one of the left, must not be renounced, but it is necessary that Europe does not let itself be conditioned by the obsession with the rigidity of the accounts. An approach that inevitably created tension on the markets, strongly questioning the Paris-Berlin axis created under the Sarkozy government which in recent years has guided economic policy choices within the eurozone.
