ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Hollande à droite toute
by Aurélien Soucheyre
Translated Saturday 26 September 2015, by
In a book, the president admits that all his reforms were not entirely left-wing.
"I have initiated reforms that are not entirely left-wing but serve the general interest." François Hollande unashamedly admits in the book, “Le Stage Est Fini”, written by Le Monde journalist, Françoise Fressoz, published today by Albin Michel. In the book, the president of the republic returns his "most difficult decision": that of not having renegotiated the European Treaty, which was, however, one of his campaign promises. A forbearance he now openly defends. "The break with the majority came then, not later," he explains, before making the justification: "I accepted the treaty to place France at the heart of Europe and not on the edge." Other contentious explanations? Laying it on thick, the head of state would like us to believe that any action by France, for an alternative in Europe, would have been fatally doomed to failure, "What would it have changed? I would not have obtained any gain on a budgetary level, I would have created destabilisation in the eurozone, I would have caused the marginalization of France." Still on the question of courage and statesmanship, Francois Hollande admits having gone “too far" in scrapping Nicolas Sarkozy‘s planned VAT increase in his first few months in office. If he had to decide again, he would keep it "to balance the budget", and too bad for the poorest citizens who are systematically most affected when VAT increases. In the end, François Hollande seems to regret this left initiated measure more than all the right-wing ones that followed...