Schaeuble Says Hollande Is Obligated to Curb France’s Deficit

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said French President-elect Francois Hollande has an obligation to reduce the budget deficit and he’s confident that France’s new government won’t renegotiate Europe’s fiscal pact.
“The commitments on deficit reduction that every country in Europe has undertaken will be upheld also by France,” Schaeuble said in an interview broadcast late yesterday on Germany’s ARD television channel. “I have absolutely no doubt about that. How France puts together its budget within the framework of the European commitments is up to them.”
Governments will manage to convince France it must abide by the European Union’s fiscal treaty to stem the debt crisis, he said. “We will discuss that intensively,” Schaeuble said.
Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, signed the pact for France when leaders of all 27 EU countries except the U.K. and the Czech Republic endorsed it in March.
“There’s no sustainable growth without deficit reduction,” Schaeuble said. “Over the last few years, we proved in Germany that this works.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net