François Bayrou's Budget Speech: No, France is not Greece

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During his budget speech on Tuesday, July 15, the Prime Minister began by waving the Greek scarecrow. But the haphazard parallel with France is unfounded and imprecise.

Meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and former French President Françoise Hollande at the Maximos Mansion in Athens on November 16, 2018. (Nick Paleologos / Sooc. AFP)

by Fabien Perrier , Correspondent in Athens

On Tuesday, July 15, Prime Minister François Bayrou had barely begun his budget speech , entitled "the moment of truth," when he summoned Greece. The biographer of Henri IV uses an example from the past, that of a "country that can no longer meet its monthly expenses without borrowing, and which can no longer find lenders," and is therefore unable to cover current expenses (civil servant salaries, pensions, etc.) and is "forced to give in" to creditors. "The Prime Minister at the time was called Alexis Tsipras ," he asserts, and the country invoked was Greece.

This parallel is a bit risky. First of all, on a historical level. The Greek crisis