Frances Seguin Pledges Single Currency, Jobs

Gaullist Philippe Seguin, tipped as the next prime minister if the right wins Sundays parliamentary election, said on Thursday France would honour its word to join a single European currency. He also promised to tackle unemployment.

Frances word must be respected, our signature must be honoured, we must ensure that the final phase of entry into a single currency goes ahead, Seguin, the outgoing speaker of the National Assembly, told a campaign rally in Paris.

He said France should begin monetary union in the company of the largest possible number of partners, in particular Italy, Spain and Portugal, which are so close to us.

 

Seguin addressed the centre-right rally via a television link-up from his constituency in Epinal, eastern France.

He led the unsuccessful campaign against approval of the Maastricht treaty on European union in a 1992 referendum.

But he has since come around to the prevailing view within the centre-right majority, saying he strongly supports European monetary union.

However he has also rejected an overly strict interpretation of the criteria for monetary union, saying for example that it would be masochistic to stick strictly to the deficit limit of three percent of gross domestic product in a period of slow growth.

Seguin praised current prime minister Alain Juppe who has said he will leave the government no matter who wins on Sunday for his efforts to curb record 12.8 percent unemployment, which has become a major focus of the election campaign.

But he said that voters had turned against the centre-right government in last Sundays first round of voting because they had not been given a clear picture of the governments plans.

They want a road map which explains to them what we expect of them, where we want to lead them, he said.

If we do not do so now, their anger will continue to grow and will end up engulfing us all, both the (centre-right) majority and the opposition.

We must mobilise all of our energies, here and now, against unemployment, Seguin said.

No one, to my knowledge, has invented a vaccine against unemployment. But we can attack it from many directions, by focusing our resources.

He said a battle plan against unemployment should include mastering interest rates, creating new types of services, lowering payroll taxes, expanding job training, improving public education and expanding trade with China.