Sunday, September 25, 2011, 11:00 P.M: joint statement of the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and of the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.
“We, the leaders in charge at the highest level of the two great powers of the European Union, have decided, after much thought, to follow the example of the Spanish Prime Minister and not to come up again to the next elections in our countries.
We are, today, both very unpopular; and the polls give us little chance of being reelected. We believe we could be reelected only if we do not offend any pressure groups, do not raise any taxes, and do not cut any spending. This would not be in the interest of our countries.
We are indeed convinced that the time has come to tell the truth to our peoples, and to act, regardless of short-term electoral consequences.
First, the facts: We recognize that things are going badly for our countries; even if each one of us claims to be better than the other: our public debt is out of control; our banks are threatened by toxic products on which they made their profit; our unemployment is very high, and where people work, it is too often on a part-time basis. Inequalities are widening between our citizens and with foreigners who work here.
We do not dare to say, in Germany, that we could not live without the French nuclear energy. And in France, that we could not live without the German trade surplus. We do not dare to say, that, one without the other, our two countries are doomed to decline, and see the return of our old demons.
We have waited too long to reform our schools and universities; train better our unemployed; control our expending; reform our taxes. We have favored too much our vested interest, not provided enough the youth the means for their future. We have not done enough to help the poor escape poverty, to propose another model of life.
We have not dared to show long-term ambitions for our countries. Let alone set forth the necessary efforts to achieve them.
We must change that. Together, our peoples can regain pride of their future. And for that, first, financial independence. And for that we are both going to propose for 2012 surplus budgets. We are going to share our defense budgets, in order to reduce our armament spending and increase their effectiveness. We are going to harmonize by levelling up our minimum solidarity revenues, our demographic policies and our health coverages. We will offer together to the European Union to move forward with determination in the direction of federalism, to introduce a tax on financial transactions, to provide the means to borrow and invest, and to take if necessary a participation in the first European banks to ensure their solvency. We will deny access to EU funding to any European government with a budget deficit, as long as its debt will not drop below 60% of their GDP.
We will do all this (with the support, we hope, of our parliamentary majorities) in the few months left until the end of our mandates. We make a commitment not to influence the choice of our successors in our parties. We expect them only to adopt this reasoning of truth, that the peoples expected from us for a long time. And now, off to work!”