France's next prime minister faces a brutal financial crisis

i amt was a French politician, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who coined the term “excessive privilege” in the 1960s. He cited America's advantages as the issuer of the world's reserve currency—such as the ability to comfortably run high deficits. These days France is reminded that it has no such privilege. Ahead of parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7, its huge deficit and mounting debt are the focus of campaigning. The European Commission is expected to put France into an excessive-deficit mechanism on June 19 (EDP), the EUIts fiscal torture chamber, which means the country's politicians have to come up with a plan to fix things.

Commission officials have good reason to do so. France has an American-style deficit of 5%. GDPwhich is its central bank and The IMF Just expect it to come down slowly. National Debt-GDP The 111% ratio is similar to Italy's before the euro crisis in the early 2010s, and continues to rise. comeAndp Global, a ratings agency, downgraded the French government's sovereign-debt rating. AA per AA– May 31—before French President Emmanuel Macron gambled on a snap election that could bring a far-right national rally (RN) or the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) in power, under his continued presidency.