My profiles:
"What is extraordinary – and only now, slowly, being put right – is how little the French media, and especially French television, has examined the fine print, or even the large print, of what Mr Le Pen says he intends to do in office."
It's not hard to debunk Le Pen's program, which sorely lacks a tentative budget and a reform rollout schedule. Other parties don't feel the exercise is necessary either; no wonder since none of their budgets would balance anyway (except maybe when based on outlandish growth numbers, e.g. the socialist program.) But it's a lot easier for most of our "journalists" to howl with the wolves and cut-and paste press releases into "articles" (read contempt and despair in my quotes).
France has an increasing debt load (More than 650 billion Euro and about 50% of GDP) that will put the country at odds with the EU in the years to come. Yet nobody even bothered to ask the candidates how they planned to address this huge problem that lies plain in sight. The French Franc was devaluated six times since 1979, but now that we have the Euro what policies will be available to realign our economy with Maastricht compliance? There was disingenuous small talk between Chirac and Jospin about the amount of governement deficit in the couple of years to come (and whether the deadline to reach balance was 2004 and 2007), but politicans (except Charles Pasqua) avoided to address - and the media failed to report - the size and nature of the real economic issue (compound debt, not just yearly deficits.)
Read article 104c of the Union Treaty, paragraphs 7 to 14. Already there was disagreement about a tentative warning to be addressed by the EU to Germany and Portugal. Five years down the road, what do you think will happen in France after formal warnings, then fines? Either people will want to get out of the EU, or the convergence criteria will get softened to the point where the Euro won't mean much against the dollar.
No, I don't think German and French governments will be able and willing to mend their ways and cut on deficits and debt. They might even get back to national currencies to recover more autonomy rather than adopt less statist positions. Speaking of the EU and the Euro, in France the Maastricht Treaty was accepted 10 years ago by a narrow 51% majority and a low 70% turnout. Chirac and Jospin acted and spoke as if the whole country had blissfully adopted both the new institutions and currency. Now their supporters act surprised as if they just realized there's still opposition to €urocracy. Expect resistance to increase as more people realize they voted themselves out of national institutions, which, however imperfect and remote, were more democratic and closer to their concerns than the EU.
It's indeed easier to attack the symptom Le Pen than the underlying disease.