Thumbs down: France slams German austerity measures

PARIS: French Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg criticised German austerity measures and warned France would no longer “be pushed around” by the EU’s economic powerhouse. “You have to raise your voice. Germany is trapped in an austerity policy that it imposed across Europe,” the socialist minister said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper. Montebourg’s comments follow Germany’s snubbing of a request from French President Francois Hollande earlier this month for an EU-wide shift of economic policy in order to encourage growth. They put Montebourg at loggerheads with Hollande, who said this week he did not want to see France go “head to head” with Berlin. Since the start of the eurozone debt crisis in 2010, Germany has faced accusations that by failing to use its standing as Europe’s biggest economy to do more to kickstart growth, it is leaving struggling partners in the lurch.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2014.

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