Sarkozy woos voters after euro deal

‘EU avoided a global catastrophe’:

FRANCE: Fresh from clinching a deal on the euro, French President Nicolas Sarkozy sought to convince voters Thursday he was best-placed to steer the country ahead of a tough election fight next year.

Speaking in a rare national television interview, Sarkozy said he and other European leaders had avoided a global “catastrophe” by agreeing a deal to tackle the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Trailing his Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the polls ahead of an election due next spring, Sarkozy also lauded his administration’s economic record, despite having to admit the government was lowering its 2012 growth forecast.

“If the euro had exploded last night, all of Europe would have exploded,” Sarkozy said.

“If Greece had defaulted, there would have been a domino effect carrying everyone away,” he said. “If there had not been an agreement last night, it was not just Europe that would have sunk into catastrophe, it was the whole world.”

Sarkozy was speaking after European leaders clinched a deal that will address the debt mountain in Greece, cutting it by 100 billion euros in an agreement between the eurozone and private creditor banks which will take a 50 percent loss on their holdings.

Ahead of an election set to be dominated by the economy, Sarkozy was forced to admit that the government had lowered its growth forecast for next year from 1.75 percent to 1.0 percent.

He warned that the government would soon be announcing extra measures to make up for a budget shortfall of between six and eight billion euros but, sticking with his centre-right policies, said the measures would focus on boosting competitiveness.

“The key is growth and jobs,” he said, adding that he opposed a general increase in France’s value-added tax because it would “weigh on the purchasing power of the French people.”

He praised his government’s prudent economic policies, in particular pension reforms, saying the reform “had protected France and protected the French people”.

Hollande had earlier hit out at Sarkozy over the eurozone agreement.

“An agreement... was necessary, from this point of view the worst was avoided. But several points seem inadequate, both on the financial and the economic level,” Hollande said in a statement.

AFP