Tagged with France

Three reasons why French Socialists are right to oppose PM Valls’ austerity plan

Manuel VallsFrance’s ruling socialist party is in revolt. A very vocal minority don’t like the austerity plan of new PM Manuel Valls. And they are threatening to vote it down. Here’s 3 reasons why they are right. (Translated by Tom Gill from the original by Christian Chavagneux )

France’s new prime minister – now three weeks into his job – last week unveiled a swinging austerity plan. Although the mix of measures is different than previous policy announcements, it is essentially the same thrust of economic policy aimed at limiting public deficits to win ‘business competitiveness’ and restore purchasing power to households that has been pursued for a number of years. And they are not working. Here’s why: Continue reading →

Blairites, Valls and Renzi, offer little hope for Eurozone

reddish Euro flagValls and Renzi, the new prime ministers of France and Italy respectively, have made clear their respect for Blair and their intention to follow his example. That’s bad news for the Eurozone and for the EU in general. Blairism is not an economic ideology, but rather a style of leadership that is far more about presentation than substance. So far from representing any new economic ideas, it swallowed the existing free markets capitalist fundamentalism hook, line and sinker. That’s why following the Blairite line in France and Italy, both countries in deep economic difficulty, is likely to be so self-destructive. Continue reading →

French socialist revolt continues

hollande-et-parti-socialisteThe revolt in France’s socialist party continued this week as details of a fresh austerity plan were unveiled by new Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Valls has announced a 50 billion euro austerity plan to be funded largely by cuts to pensions, a freeze in public servants’ salaries and cuts to public services.

The announcement was “received as a slap in the face by some Socialist MPs who expected at least a gesture to the left”, L’Humanité reported. However, the majority are expected to back the plan when it goes before parliament next April 30, despite the pounding the party received in local polls late last month amid a tightening of the austerity screw. Continue reading →

François Hollande moves to silence left dissenters in French Socialist Party

hollande-et-parti-socialisteAfter their drubbing in the polls, François Hollande has acted swiftly to ensure his chosen candidate, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, was installed as party leader.  Cambadélis’s task is to ensure that any opposition to the party’s rightwards shift is silenced, notably that of the Socialist Party (PS) left faction, Maintenant la gauche, which opposes deficit reduction, and argues for the replacement the EU ‘Merkozy’ treaty with an EU programme of growth and re-industrialisation, an EU minimum wage and fiscal harmonisation, wealth redistribution and the elimination of tax evasion. Who better to smash the left than a former Troskyist and 1968 student activist like Jean-Christophe Cambadélis. Continue reading →

Alexis Tsipras backs mass demonstration in Paris against austerity

Thousands of people protested in Paris on Saturday calling for a change in the austerity policies of President Francois Hollande. The Front de Gauche, whose principle components are the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Parti de Gaunche, led the demonstration that declared “Hollande, enough!” and rallied “against austerity” and for “equality and the redistribution of wealth”. Continue reading →