varoufakis117_JULIEN DE ROSAAFP via Getty Images_macron JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty Images

Macron and Europe’s Centrists Are Out of Good Options

After four years of pandemic-induced fiscal laxity, the eurozone’s rules are back in force, requiring that France impose severe austerity measures to reduce its deficit. Though no political party ever wants to go down this road, it is the only choice that French President Emmanuel Macron has left himself.

ATHENS – France’s political impasse reflects an economic conundrum that is insoluble under the present European construction. After four years of pandemic-induced fiscal laxity, the eurozone’s rules are back in force, demanding of Paris a wave of severe austerity that no political party, including President Emmanuel Macron’s, can or would want to implement. This is the main reason Macron called a parliamentary election that he knew he would lose.

https://prosyn.org/qoc4Lkz