France’s President François Hollande, battling low poll ratings, appealed to the public on Tuesday to judge his government at the end of his five-year mandate, saying it had already put in place fundamental reforms to deal with the “serious situation” facing the economy, reports The Financial Times.
Speaking at his first full press conference at the Elysée palace since his election six months ago, the Socialist president aimed to dispel doubts about his leadership – criticised as lacking dynamism and experience – by seeking to demonstrate an active reform agenda and a compelling vision for France as it teeters on the brink of economic recession.
“Decline is not our destiny,” he said in the gilded Salles des Fêtes where General Charles de Gaulle initiated the first of such presidential press conferences.
In an appearance lasting two-and-a-half hours, Mr Hollande emphasised the importance of the eurozone’s second-biggest economy’s to the success of the single currency bloc by saying a weakened France would mean a weakened Europe.
Mr Hollande is battling to regain the political initiative amid mounting dissent on the left of his party and criticism from the rightwing opposition over allegedly ineffectual government in a time of economic crisis.
He defended his six-month record during the televised event, saying: “Show me a government that has arrived as quickly at the two big decisions of the public debt and of industrial [policy].”
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.