NEWS,10.03.2012.

Sarkozy says will bow out if French don't pick him

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday he would fight with everything he has to win a second term but will bow out of politics if he loses an April-May election.Riot police using teargas were sent in to clear a crowd of 200 mostly young protestors in a town ahead of a campaign rally he was due to hold in the central French town of Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert just a few weeks from election day.Sarkozy, who is badly lagging Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls six weeks before the first round of voting, said Hollande's lack of ministerial or international experience was a problem at a time of economic turmoil.I worry when I look at the Socialist candidate's programme ... and I worry about this dearth of experience in such a troubled period. But if the French people do not put their faith in me, do you really think I would carry on in politics? The answer is no," Sarkozy told .Hollande widened his lead slightly this week, advancing 2 points to 30 percent support for the April 22 first round, while Sarkozy gained only 1 point to 28 percent.The survey, by pollster CSA, saw Hollande beating Sarkozy by 56 percent to 44 percent in a May 6 runoff."I will fight with all my strength to win your confidence, to protect and lead you and build a strong France, but if that is not your choice I will bow out, that's the way it is, and I will have had a great life in politics," he said.His wife, former model-turned singer Carla Bruni, said Sarkozy had devoted himself entirely to his job and would continue to do so if he won a second term, but if he lost he would have little choice but to change direction."What do you expect him to do after being president of the Republic? Do you want him to go back to being a minister or a mayor?" she told French talkshow "C a Vous", adding that she worried about his health and his long working hours.Sarkozy said on a three-hour televised debate on Tuesday that he was not discouraged by his weak poll scores and that one of his characteristics is that he never gives up.But French media are reporting that his campaign team is starting to worry that Sarkozy's efforts to overcome a widespread dislike of his personal style and anger over three years of economic gloom are not working.A week after protestors pelted his escort with eggs in the southwest of France, Sarkozy's impending arrival in Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert triggered a protest by some 200 youths waving banners with slogans such as "no to the president" or "Sarkozy, you're the security problem".A reporter saw riot police move in to clear the crowd and prevent them nearing the rally location.Campaign spokeswoman Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet - who was lambasted as out of touch after she was unable to tell a radio presenter the price of a Paris metro ticket - lamented this week that the race had descended into distracting polemic.Sarkozy launched his campaign in mid-February, several weeks after Hollande, and has opted for a strategy of unveiling his ideas - such as a new minimum tax on company profits, making the unemployed sign up to training to get their benefits and holding policy referendums - week by week. After a strong start that saw him trim the gap with Hollande by a few points, he suffered setbacks in his second week, including being jostled by left-wing militants while out on the campaign trail, and has now lost his initial bounce. Meanwhile Hollande has consolidated his lead position after announcing a surprise 75 percent tax rate on annual income above 1 million euros, a move nearly two in three voters support. On Thursday's radio show, Sarkozy proposed a new household fund for women abandoned by fathers of their children, a new renovation programme for city suburbs and said he would cut the number of lawmakers by 10 to 15 percent to trim public spending.Socialist politician Bernard Cazeneuve said the raft of measures smacked of a last-minute panic, and mocked Sarkozy for diverting attention with talk of life after the presidency.

"We don't care what he does if he loses, what we want to know is what he'll do if he's elected," he told.Sarkozy, whose main focus is on structural reform and tighter immigration rules, is expected to give his first real campaign overview at a big campaign rally on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.

 

NEWS,08.03.2012..

Greece seals bond swap deal

Greece closed a bond swap offer to private creditors today after clearing the minimum threshold of acceptance to push the deal through, moving closer to unlocking funds it needs to avoid a dangerous debt default. Government officials said before the final deadline for declaring interest passed that more than 75% of eligible bonds had already been committed. The biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history will see bond holders accept losses of some 74% on the value of their investments in a deal that will cut more than 100 billion euros from Greece's crippling public debt. Preliminary results from the offer are expected to be announced officially at the weekend before a conference call with euro zone finance ministers in the afternoon. One of the chief negotiators for the bondholders, Charles Dallara, forecast a "very high" final take-up, though he was unsure if it would hit the 90% Greece is aiming for. Athens had said that it would abandon the deal if it did not receive at least 75% participation in the offer and it required two-thirds take-up to deploy a legal device to force recalcitrant creditors to accept the terms. The private sector involvement (PSI) deal is a key element in a broader international bailout aimed at averting a chaotic default by Greece and a potentially disastrous banking crisis across the euro zone. The European Union and International Monetary Fund have made a successful bond swap a pre-condition for final approval of the 130 billion euros ($170 billion) bailout agreed last month.” If all goes well, tomorrow we will be able to announce that a debt burden of 105 billion euros has been lifted from the Greek people," Venizelos told parliament earlier in the day. "For the first time we are cutting debt instead of adding to it.” Despite the optimism, the deal will not solve Greece's deep-seated problems and at best it may buy time for a country facing its biggest economic crisis since World War Two and staggering under debt equal to 160% of its gross domestic product. However financial markets rose strongly as the threat of an immediate and uncontrolled default receded. Bank stocks rose sharply and the risk premium on Italian and Spanish government bonds fell as investors hoped a Greek deal would curb the likelihood of any contagion spreading to other weaker euro zone economies. Euro zone ministers could decide whether to clear the overall bailout package in a conference call this weekend although they may leave the final decision until a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday. Greece must have the funds in place by March 20 when some 14.5 billion euros of bonds are due, which it cannot hope to repay alone. With over 75% take-up secured, well above the required two thirds threshold, Athens should be able to apply collective action clauses (CAC) imposing the deal on all holders of 177 billion euros in bonds regulated by Greek law.Venizelos is expected to discuss that option on the euro zone ministerial call over the weekend. Athens faces a more complex problem with some 18 billion euros in bonds regulated under international law with a number of hedge funds expected to try to fight a deal in the courts. It also remains to be seen whether credit default swaps (CDS) which some investors have taken as insurance against a forced restructuring of the debt will be paid out. Greece has staggered from deadline to deadline since the crisis broke two years ago and several of its international partners have expressed open doubts about whether its second major bailout in two years will be the last. Underlining the severe problems facing Greece after five years of deep recession, data on Friday showed unemployment running at a record 21% in December, twice the euro zone average, with 51% of young people without a job. There has been growing resentment over the austerity medicine ordered by international creditors which has compounded the pain from a slump which has seen the economy shrink by a fifth since 2008.But Greece, totally reliant on international support to stave off bankruptcy, has also infuriated both the EU and the IMF with its repeated failure to push through promised reforms.” We have shown a lot of solidarity with Greece," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said late on Wednesday. "Everyone knows that the real problems of Greek society are in Greece and not abroad."