Wed, May 02, 2012
By Wang Qi
Middle class of France perhaps has a better reason to celebrate this May Day holiday as Fran?ois Hollande,the left Socialist candidate on behalf of them distinguished himself in the primary election and is about to compete with Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent president in the second round of voting slated for May 6.
Hollande, a determined leftist, pledged to increase income bottom line and to raise taxes on major enterprises as well as the rich. He also calls for review of austerity measures in the euro zone. The rise of the Socialist party suggests a political wind direction that opposes a Germany-led solution to the European sovereign crisis driven by budget cutting of governments.
Austerity plans, however, led by Germany and France in forcing governments in eurozone to tremendously cut public expenditures,could hardly win a new skyline for the debt-ridden countries. Debt-stricken countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland established new governments for fiscal reforms. In addition, as much as $ 700 billion has been invested to build a "global fire wall" to prevent crisis epidemic by World Bank, G20 and BRICKS.
The Dutch government has just seen general resignation of its Cabinet because of resist of the fiscal austerity by the country's rights, which might lead to downgrading of its sovereignty. It began to cripple the precarious consensus on conservation. Other eurozone countries are also confronted with public complaints and slipped to political turmoil, further threatening implementation of the fiscal austerity plans.
As for Germans who had long been discontent with paying for profligacy of its European neighbors, they only consented to reforming on fiscal system because other countries in crisis agreed to do the same.
Should France take the lead to shift its stance, namely continuing its welfare policy on deficit spending, the "global fire wall" system would cripple with a ramification beyond eurozone.
Such an ending may not be a fantasy. Major European cities saw large-scale protests on May Day as laid-offs gathered to protest against struggles in livelihood and demand termination of fiscal austerity. It left in a dilemma countries to wage presidential elections in near future. In France, for instance, will have its future profoundly affected by its voters in days to come.
