Reply #68: Royal in rallying call for shift to left [View All]

[Ghost Dog]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4669445a-ba3d-11db-89c8-0000779e2340.html

Battle lines have been drawn for France's presidential election after Ségolène Royal sounded the rallying call yesterday for a national shift leftwards.

Ms Royal, the Socialist candidate, made a speech casting herself as defender of the country's generous social model.

Laying out an interventionist and protective economic vision, she promised to increase the minimum wage, massively boost research spending and give the state more control over banks and the media. She also pledged to merge EDF and Gaz de France into a single nationalised utility.

A Royal presidency would scrap laws that make it easier for small companies to hire and fire, put fiscal penalties on companies that pay dividends rather than retain profits and demand that the European Central Bank be obliged to make economic growth central to monetary policy.

But the biggest cheer from the 10,000 supporters gathered in a Paris conference centre came as Ms Royal promised: "As a woman, I want all children born in France to have what I wanted for my own children."

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