Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull France out of the euro

mike65

As the title says

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100514-705256.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope

MADRID (Dow Jones)--French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the weekend threatened to take France out of the euro if Germany refused to help rescue Greece, El Pais reported Friday, citing people close to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

European Union leaders last weekend put together a giant euro-zone financial backstop partly designed to ease investor concerns about the public finances of several member states after a spike in credit markets tensions and several days of tumbling stock markets.

Sarkozy at one point during negotiations "slammed his fist on the table and threatened to pull out of the euro," forcing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to cave in and agree to the deal, Zapatero was quoted as saying to fellow Socialist party leaders.

A spokeswoman for the French presidency declined to comment on the report.

Sounds like a rather empty threat to make him look good at home.

Funkfield

French President Nicolas Sarkozy can kiss my a$$ :pac:

P. Breathnach

mike65 wrote: »

As the title says

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100514-705256.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope

Sounds like a rather empty threat to make him look good at home.

Sarkozy is fond of posturing.

He might, however, have had a good point (I say "might", as I haven't thought it through fully): if the euro is to work, then an amount of solidarity and mutual assistance between states is necessary.

prinz

As above the states need to work together.

As for whether it actually happened as described.. well it's a newspaper report of what someone said someone said to them.... could be an element of chinese whispers to the whole thing.

SkepticOne

You can see that deep down Sarkozy has a pragmatic approach to the Euro. It is not an ideal for which sacrifices must be made but a tool for the service of the country for as long as it is seen to benefit the country.

ChocolateSauce

Looks to me like he's expressing French annoyance at Germany pulling the shots in the Greece drama.

France usually takes the lead in European affairs, with Germany grunting and nodding in agreement, but this time Germany is the one who said "this is what we should do", and France found that Germany's voice was louder....

censuspro

For starters, the source quoted from EL Pais is a pro left wing socialist newspaper in Spain which is the equivalent to Fox News and the Republican Party in the US. The reason this is significant is because Zapatero (socialist PSOE party) has effectively stuck his head in the sand for the past 2 years until last week when his hand was forced by Sarkozy and Merkel to impose the largest public sector and social cuts in the history of the state, bearing in mind that this is the left wing socialist party. Not to mention that two days prior, Zapatero stated that he would never cut social welfare and within a matter of days he came back from Brussels with his tail between his legs and was forced to impose the biggest cuts in the history of the state. Spain has only begun the process of tackling their budget deficit and public sector pay which is something that Ireland did (whether you agree with the methods or not) 2 years ago.

The idea of Sarkozy mimicking Khrushchev by banging his shoe on the table seems highly unlikely, and the idea of Angela Merkel caving in to such behavior seems even more unbelievable.

jacaranda

censuspro wrote: »

For starters, the source quoted from EL Pais is a pro left wing socialist newspaper in Spain which is the equivalent to Fox News and the Republican Party in the US. The reason this is significant is because Zapatero (socialist PSOE party) has effectively stuck his head in the sand for the past 2 years until last week when his hand was forced by Sarkozy and Merkel to impose the largest public sector and social cuts in the history of the state, bearing in mind that this is the left wing socialist party. Not to mention that two days prior, Zapatero stated that he would never cut social welfare and within a matter of days he came back from Brussels with his tail between his legs and was forced to impose the biggest cuts in the history of the state. Spain has only begun the process of tackling their budget deficit and public sector pay which is something that Ireland did (whether you agree with the methods or not) 2 years ago.

The idea of Sarkozy mimicking Khrushchev by banging his shoe on the table seems highly unlikely, and the idea of Angela Merkel caving in to such behavior seems even more unbelievable.

Actually, the German Government may be ahead of the French in making plans to exit the Euro, as they can see that the currency is doomed in the short and medium term due to unmanageable debts of many of the other countries. See my post here.. http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=65926585&postcount=31

View

In other words, the leaders of the member states had a "Put up or Shut up" moment and they opted to put up.

conorhal

censuspro wrote: »

The idea of Sarkozy mimicking Khrushchev by banging his shoe on the table seems highly unlikely.

Only because without his shoes on (and his lifts), little Saro couldn't reach the table.....

Frankly, I does sound like the kind of petulent statement he might make in a huff, but you're right, I doubt Merkel would have taken the threat as anything more then posturing.

ei.sdraob

P. Breathnach wrote: »

if the euro is to work, then an amount of solidarity and mutual assistance between states is necessary.

if the euro is to work then fiscal restraint and following the signed treaties is required