The left-wing star of President Hollande’s embattled Government has urged Europe to draw inspiration from an unlikely source in the fight against crisis — Britain, reports The Times.
Arnaud Montebourg, France’s flamboyant Industry Minister, held up the UK — once vilified by Gallic socialists as the embodiment of capitalist evil — as an example to follow. His comments, in an interview with The Times, showed how the green shoots of British revival are earning grudging attention from decision-makers in France, where the economic landscape remains barren.
Mr Montebourg’s words were particularly notable given that he is the self-appointed champion of Gallic patriotism, seeking to persuade his demoralised compatriots that their nation can renew with prosperity.
This autumn, he published a book, La Bataille du Made in France (The Battle of Made in France), which sets out his ambition to reverse a decade-long decline in industry that has led to the loss of 750,000 jobs. France is struggling with record unemployment, a wave of strikes and violent protests against taxation. Mr Hollande is the least popular elected head of state in its history.
With commentators warning that the country could be heading for a social explosion, Mr Montebourg, 51, said it needed the equivalent of keep calm and carry on. “I would like to draw inspiration on the phlegm of the British to say that everyone must keep calm because we need to regenerate our country,” he said.
More surprisingly — given that his Socialist Party came to power promising the opposite of David Cameron’s approach — he paid tribute to Britain’s combination of cutbacks and quantitative easing.
“It’s not entirely a policy of austerity,” he said. “It’s a tough policy in budgetary terms but very flexible in monetary terms and that is what we need in Europe. We are, ourselves, in favour of budgetary seriousness."
Read more of this report from The Times.