Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• [Unknown]

Titel

An inconvenient truth; The French election

Ist Teil von

• The Economist (London), 2012-03, Vol.402 (8778), p.31-34

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A week after France was shaken by terrorist shootings in and around Toulouse, candidates for the country's presidential election have gone back to the stump. The tone is a little less shrill, the contenders respectful of the sombre mood. Yet the return to electioneering has a surreal quality nonetheless, unlinked to the new concerns about security. For the country faces an imminent economic shock, which the presidential candidates are utterly failing to acknowledge. The awkward truth is that France, the second-biggest economy in the euro zone after Germany, faces a public-finance squeeze. French public spending now accounts for 56% of GDP, compared with an OECD average of 43.3%: higher even than in Sweden. For years France has offered its people a Swedish-style social model of services, benefits and protection, but has failed to create enough wealth to pay for it. Today France continues to behave as if it enjoyed Sweden's or Germany's public finances, when in truth they are closer to those of Spain. Adapted from the source document.