Sarkozy Seen as Baiting Socialists With Budget Rule

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Sarkozy Seen as Baiting Socialists With Budget Rule
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: August 22, 2011

PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy has used the crisis over the euro and his relationship with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to set a potential political trap for the Socialist opposition less than nine months before the French presidential election.

Hoping to show the French that he is a man of stature and responsibility, Mr. Sarkozy is pressing for a constitutional amendment to promote a balanced budget and making it a litmus test of fiscal responsibility for the Socialists, who oppose it.

Mr. Sarkozy has previously floated an idea he calls “the golden rule,” a legal requirement for a balanced budget, and a weak version has passed both houses of Parliament, where his center-right party has a majority. The Socialists voted against it, calling it a political maneuver and a “communications operation.”

Now he wants to enshrine the idea in the Constitution, and for that needs 60 percent of the legislators, which he does not have.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/world/europe/23france.html?_r=1&ref=europe

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Nicolas Sarkozy, making France just like Texas...

[provis99]

2. maybe he's inspired by his reactionary Hungarian homeland...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/28/hungary-introduces-press-censorship/