Sarkozy offers France 5 years of economic austerity

Sarkozy is proposing 75 billion euros in budget cuts and 40 billion euros in increased taxes over the next five years. Social programs will get axed, and part of the new revenue will come from a hike in the Value Added Tax, which falls on the rich and the poor equally.

While Sarkozy is following the German austerity line, voters have drastic alternatives proposed by the favorite, Socialist Francois Hollande. In the new road map to his 1st year in office he’s promised populist measures such as freezing fuel prices and boosting welfare payouts.

Without the fiscal cuts, Sarkozy warned France of turning into Greece, which many viewed as a scare tactic designed to ram through his austerity measures. It’s likely that Sarkozy will invoke the threat of terrorism for the rest of the campaign, as he has said recent raids and expulsions of alleged religious extremists are necessary to continue.

In 2007 Sarkozy’s pandering to the far-right worked, but in 2012 the economic crisis is demanding more seriousness from France’s voters. Fiscal policy is returning to its central role in the campaign, and France is clearly favoring the proposals of the left.