French Front-Runner Says He’d Seek to Renegotiate Fiscal Treaty if Elected

 

Mr. Hollande also praised the position taken in Brussels on Wednesday by the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who said he favored “a growth compact” of structural reforms in parallel with the fiscal treaty limiting budget deficits and national debt.

But there was little indication that Germany, the driving force behind the austerity-driven fiscal treaty agreed to last month, was warming to his ideas.

In the first news conference of his campaign, Mr. Hollande said that he would propose four modifications to the European Union treaty, favored by Germany and approved in March but not yet ratified. Most significant, perhaps, he called for the creation of collective euro bonds, but to be used to finance industrial infrastructure projects, not to consolidate debt, which the Germans oppose.

He said he would also call for a financial transaction tax, as his rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy has done, and for loosening up regulations to allow unused European Union structural funds to be spent on growth. Finally, he urged the European Investment Bank to place a greater emphasis on job creation in its allocation of financing.

The main risk to Europe now, Mr. Hollande said, “is that the European economy remains in a recession because not enough credit is provided to companies.” He said that increased growth would help shrink debt, and that other European leaders were coming closer to his argument that increased growth is “ultimately a more effective way of reaching the same goal of controlling the debt and reducing deficits.”

Mr. Hollande continues to lead Mr. Sarkozy in opinion polls for the second round of the presidential election on May 6.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, supported by Mr. Sarkozy, led the push for Europe’s budget treaty, which would require nations to limit their annual budget deficits to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2013 and gradually reduce their total national debt to 60 percent of G.D.P.

Mr. Hollande said Wednesday that he was “ready to open this discussion with Madame Merkel,” who has urged Mr. Sarkozy’s re-election. If he becomes president, Mr. Hollande will make his first visit to Berlin. He will be “firm and friendly” with Ms. Merkel, he said. “There’s no need to create a conflict, even if we’re not here to hide our divergences.”

Ms. Merkel supported Mr. Draghi’s comments on Wednesday, telling her Christian Democratic Party in Berlin that Europe needed growth “in the way that Mario Draghi said it today, that is in the form of structural reforms,” she said.

But if he were expecting a new receptivity in Berlin to growth policies, Mr. Hollande seemed to be heading for disappointment. Ms. Merkel’s stance on austerity as the cure for the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe stems from a mix of domestic politics, strategic maneuvering and deeply held conviction that analysts say is unlikely to change anytime soon.