The beleaguered French president, Francois Hollande said on Sunday that the crisis that has ailed much of Europe for years now is, in fact, over. The declaration is reminiscent of George W. Bush’s bombastic and rather premature “Mission accomplished” pronouncement a few months after the second Iraq war in 2003.
Standing in front of the press, dressed up in military gear on a US air carrier, Bush pronounced that America had accomplished its goals thus indicating that the army would soon start reaping the fruits of victory. Little did he know, the worst was still to come, as recent history illustrates.
Similarly, Francois Hollande made a bizarre and embarrassingly ridiculous statement about the state of the Eurozone on Sunday while visiting Japan.
“What you need to understand here in Japan is that the crisis in Europe is over,” Hollande told a shell-shocked group of reporters.
Ironically, Japan’s Abenomics is antithetical to the Keynesianism championed by Hollande. Japan is recovering, while France – according to available data – is not. If anything, Hollande’s policies have deepened the financial crisis in France, a country which is currently seeing foreign investors escape Hollande’s archaic protectionism.
Indeed, Hollande’s fiscal motto seems to be “I will have my cake and eat it too”. Hollande’s socialism, combined with spurious sense of nationalism, is in danger of making the French feel all too comfortable with dropping incomes, a bloating welfare state, growing unemployment figures and a delusional president who seems to think that statements made in Japan will not travel to Europe.
No one in their right mind would argue that the Eurozone crisis is over. Hollande seems to enjoy self-flagellation and the carelessness which it is accompanied with.
