Latest / Trumponomics / Macron’s Lonely Mission to Save Europe
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Our former model is over. This is not the same world.
- 0:22Speaker 2: We are over regulating an underinvesting. If we follow our
- 0:27Speaker 2: classical agenda, we will be out of the market.
- 0:30Speaker 3: I have no doubt.
- 0:32Speaker 1: Welcome back to voter Nomics, where politics and markets collide.
- 0:36Speaker 1: This year, voters around the world have the ability to
- 0:38Speaker 1: move markets, countries and economies like never before, so we
- 0:43Speaker 1: created this series to help you make sense of it all.
- 0:45Speaker 1: I'm Stephanie Flanders.
- 0:47Speaker 4: I'm Adrian Wooldridge, and I'm Alegri Stratton. Steph's good to
- 0:50Speaker 4: have you back from Berlin.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Yes, so I was there to host a panel. You
- 0:54Speaker 1: just heard a bit of it. Conversation on stage with
- 0:57Speaker 1: the French President, Emmanuel Macron doesn't happen every day, and
- 1:00Speaker 1: you just heard from him at the top of the show.
- 1:03Speaker 1: And it was a slightly strange setup in this that
- 1:05Speaker 1: I was on stage mainly talking to Macron, but the
- 1:09Speaker 1: chairman of the big event that was being held, the
- 1:12Speaker 1: Berlin Global Dialogue, Lars Hendrik Roller, was also up on
- 1:17Speaker 1: stage and we were supposed to be focusing on Europe's
- 1:20Speaker 1: role in a multipolar future. But I obviously wanted to
- 1:24Speaker 1: also get him some questions about the state of things
- 1:26Speaker 1: in France. We've obviously had several months where there was
- 1:28Speaker 1: a lot of uncertainty about what the government was going
- 1:30Speaker 1: to be.
- 1:31Speaker 4: So how did you find him? Was he sort of
- 1:34Speaker 4: sort of normal, feistyself.
- 1:36Speaker 1: For he did do about sort of ten or fifteen
- 1:38Speaker 1: minutes of remarks, and you were mainly reminded and what
- 1:43Speaker 1: a great speaker he is, but who also does a
- 1:45Speaker 1: very good job of just sounding like he really cares.
- 1:48Speaker 1: And this is his sort of cri de cour that
- 1:51Speaker 1: he wants to save Europe, and he's still trying to
- 1:53Speaker 1: save Europe, even though he's really probably further away from
- 1:57Speaker 1: it than he was when he came into office in
- 1:58Speaker 1: twenty seventy.
- 1:59Speaker 5: Did you think he was a operation in the sense
- 2:01Speaker 5: that he prepared very carefully for encountering you or.
- 2:04Speaker 1: Is this just himlater on? He did seem to be
- 2:08Speaker 1: like many people on the street in Germany who asked
- 2:10Speaker 1: me directions, they I, somehow do look German and so,
- 2:13Speaker 1: and he seemed to think I was German, which was fine,
- 2:15Speaker 1: except for I was kind of surprised that he was
- 2:17Speaker 1: going to be on stage, would be for an hour,
- 2:18Speaker 1: and none of his staff had bothered to say, by
- 2:20Speaker 1: the way, this woman's actually British and she's an economist
- 2:23Speaker 1: or whatever. So that was quite a sort of entertaining aspect.
- 2:26Speaker 1: He kept on like saying, well, you care very much
- 2:28Speaker 1: in this country about cars, and I was like, you know,
- 2:30Speaker 1: don't look at em.
- 2:32Speaker 5: But he seemed extraordinarily jaunty given the circumstances in France.
- 2:37Speaker 1: I mean, I did think that, and obviously afterwards one's
- 2:39Speaker 1: always thinking, oh, you know, it should have been been tougher.
- 2:42Speaker 1: I mean, if there is a sort of a tragic
- 2:45Speaker 1: arc to his time in office, if you remember when
- 2:47Speaker 1: he came in, he'd obviously had that extraordinary, very rapid
- 2:51Speaker 1: assent to the presidency, having been really more of an
- 2:56Speaker 1: advisor figure only a year earlier or junior minister, and
- 3:01Speaker 1: he said he remember he went to the World Economic
- 3:03Speaker 1: Forum and devils, he said, France is back. He had
- 3:06Speaker 1: lots of kind of reaching out to business, some of
- 3:08Speaker 1: which was very successful. If you think post Brexit the
- 3:10Speaker 1: number of banks and others that have been attracted to Paris.
- 3:13Speaker 1: He really did quite a lot in the labor market
- 3:16Speaker 1: to get people back to work. Unemployment have been stuck
- 3:19Speaker 1: over ten percent for years in France, down to seven,
- 3:22Speaker 1: stuck at seven now. But he's done quite a lot.
- 3:24Speaker 1: He did the pension reform with those enormous demonstrations, massive
- 3:28Speaker 1: political cost, and you step back and you think, what
- 3:32Speaker 1: has all that achieved. Public spending is still among the
- 3:36Speaker 1: highest in Europe, very fractionally lower than it was when
- 3:39Speaker 1: he came in office, budget deficits actually much worse than
- 3:42Speaker 1: it was, and he's got a government now that he
- 3:45Speaker 1: can't control, that is actually is hemmed in by the
- 3:49Speaker 1: far right and the far lane.
- 3:50Speaker 5: It also struck me that, you know, he conducted this
- 3:52Speaker 5: extraordinary experiment in sort of creating a populism of the
- 3:56Speaker 5: center of sort of trying to marry populism with technocratic
- 3:59Speaker 5: politics in order to draw the poison out of populism,
- 4:03Speaker 5: and it hasn't done that. It's actually further polarized and
- 4:05Speaker 5: already polarized system.
- 4:07Speaker 1: That is the extraordinary thing. It did seem like a
- 4:10Speaker 1: mistake to have called that snap election after the European
- 4:13Speaker 1: election results. You're here. He defends that absolutely and says, actually,
- 4:18Speaker 1: if he hadn't done that, he would be in no
- 4:20Speaker 1: better situation now because the same question marks would be
- 4:23Speaker 1: hanging over his agenda. But the truth is, you know,
- 4:26Speaker 1: whether that's right or wrong, he is for the rest
- 4:29Speaker 1: of his term probably going to have to sort of
- 4:32Speaker 1: stand by. And the best hope is that what he's
- 4:34Speaker 1: done so far doesn't get reversed because any effort to
- 4:39Speaker 1: push forward with any of these big reforms. You know,
- 4:41Speaker 1: but Marie La Penn can bring down this government just
- 4:44Speaker 1: by calling a confidence vote tomorrow.
- 4:45Speaker 4: But to me, there's such schizophrenia at the top of
- 4:50Speaker 4: Europe now where you've got and I wonder how much
- 4:53Speaker 4: you know you've sort of observed this talking to him,
- 4:55Speaker 4: because you're talking to him in Germany where right now
- 4:58Speaker 4: this week we've got on the one and Germany and
- 5:02Speaker 4: the EUEU tariffs on Chinese evs they don't want them
- 5:06Speaker 4: and France does want them. And then on the other hand,
- 5:08Speaker 4: as you also talked to him about later, there's this
- 5:11Speaker 4: division between himself and Schultz over what they should do
- 5:14Speaker 4: with the free trade deal with the South Americans. So
- 5:16Speaker 4: outside looking across to them, they look to have such
- 5:20Speaker 4: a schizophrenia right at the top.
- 5:21Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's even evident in his own
- 5:23Speaker 1: policy towards China right, because you know, he's at one
- 5:27Speaker 1: hand saying absolutely, we have to have a level playing field.
- 5:30Speaker 1: I'm going to be tough, and he's pushing these tariffs
- 5:33Speaker 1: on Chinese electric vehicles, which you know, we were sitting
- 5:36Speaker 1: in Berlin. The previous panel had involved someone from Mercedes
- 5:40Speaker 1: Benz and indeed one of the German ministers both saying
- 5:43Speaker 1: we can't do it. And it's this situation which speaks
- 5:45Speaker 1: to our mutual depend you know, the dependence of the
- 5:48Speaker 1: German model on China. The German car industry does not
- 5:51Speaker 1: want tariffs on the Chinese imported electric vehicles because they
- 5:56Speaker 1: export so much to China and they don't want the retaliation.
- 6:00Speaker 1: In Germany in particular, there's that schizophrenia. But even France,
- 6:03Speaker 1: on the one hand, is talking about taris, on the
- 6:05Speaker 1: other hand, is desperately trying to get investment from China
- 6:08Speaker 1: to France. Come to France, don't come to Germany. You know,
- 6:11Speaker 1: they're playing off each other even as they speak, say
- 6:14Speaker 1: they want to speak in one voice.
- 6:15Speaker 5: It struck me also that there was an extraordy schizophrenia
- 6:17Speaker 5: in what he was saying. On the one hand, he
- 6:19Speaker 5: sounds georgy, He sounds self confident, but underneath it all
- 6:22Speaker 5: there's a deep worry, I mean a really deep worry
- 6:25Speaker 5: about the state of Europe and its capacity to address
- 6:28Speaker 5: its problems. And it struck me. I wonder if there
- 6:30Speaker 5: was a that there was a presumption in the title
- 6:33Speaker 5: of your piece of your interview about Europe in a
- 6:37Speaker 5: multipolar world, which is just wrong. It's not a multipolar
- 6:39Speaker 5: world any more. It's US versus China, and it's US
- 6:43Speaker 5: versus China that's determining you know, electric vehicles and that
- 6:46Speaker 5: sort of playing field. But also if you look at
- 6:48Speaker 5: what's happening in the Middle East, Europe isn't playing a part.
- 6:51Speaker 5: It's all us.
- 6:52Speaker 1: You're quite right, you know, we have our own economists
- 6:55Speaker 1: have our economists have done analysis that shows how far
- 6:59Speaker 1: Europe's fall behind in terms of its potential growth. I
- 7:02Speaker 1: think it's about a gap of about twenty percent of
- 7:04Speaker 1: GDPs opened up in the last few years and that
- 7:07Speaker 1: we think would grow to forty percent. You know, European
- 7:10Speaker 1: Union being forty percent smaller in terms of its potential
- 7:13Speaker 1: output than the US. That's in a generation of a
- 7:18Speaker 1: massive shift in the relative standings. I would say, I
- 7:22Speaker 1: guess my passing thought on this is that we will
- 7:25Speaker 1: miss him because there are many European leaders. In fact,
- 7:28Speaker 1: he may be the only one. I felt as we
- 7:30Speaker 1: were leaving that could that could go on one of
- 7:33Speaker 1: those US Party convention stages and deliver a knockout.
- 7:38Speaker 5: Speech anyone after blur no blurse, Yes, but I.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Mean Blair not being a European leader any ayre you
- 7:43Speaker 1: might want to be. I think, you know, and despite
- 7:46Speaker 1: the fact that he is in fact French, I think
- 7:47Speaker 1: he's the only one who could represent Europe on that
- 7:50Speaker 1: kind of stage, and he does have a pretty sharp
- 7:54Speaker 1: idea of what is at stake in Europe. Continuing to
- 7:58Speaker 1: slip behind well after all that, we should hear that
- 8:06Speaker 1: interview with the French President Emmanuel Macron. You will also
- 8:09Speaker 1: hear I asked a few questions to Lars Henry Kbrawler.
- 8:14Speaker 1: He was Chancellor Merkle's chief advisor for a long time.
- 8:18Speaker 1: He's been around the block. You will hear. He wasn't
- 8:20Speaker 1: keen to be critical of his own government, but he
- 8:23Speaker 1: did speak to some of the questions that we talked about.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Monsieur and Las Henri. Thank you
- 8:30Speaker 1: for joining us again. You mentioned a few times Mario
- 8:35Speaker 1: Dragui's report, I think he'd read your so on speech
- 8:39Speaker 1: from April. Some of it read sounded like you, and
- 8:43Speaker 1: he certainly he framed the debate about European compectiveness in
- 8:48Speaker 1: a similarly stark way as an existential challenge facing the
- 8:54Speaker 1: European model. And as you mentioned, he proposed some very
- 8:58Speaker 1: concrete steps, some of them quite difficult, some of them expensive,
- 9:02Speaker 1: for moving Europe away from this path of decline. How
- 9:07Speaker 1: many of those do you think will be implemented while
- 9:11Speaker 1: you are French president.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Look, thank you very much and I'm happy to be
- 9:16Speaker 2: here with a roller, and thank you for organizing the
- 9:21Speaker 2: seventh Look, I hope the maximum number of items, because
- 9:26Speaker 2: I already believe that we are at risk. To be honest,
- 9:32Speaker 2: and it's just a word. I think our own model
- 9:37Speaker 2: was completely changed and has to be research. And when
- 9:41Speaker 2: you look at the European model, largely based by the
- 9:46Speaker 2: way on the strength of German during Germany during the
- 9:49Speaker 2: past decade, we were based on exports and a big
- 9:55Speaker 2: part of the key industry are making industry to China.
- 9:59Speaker 2: We were based on lo cost energy, Russian gas. We
- 10:04Speaker 2: were based on different sombrella from the US without any question,
- 10:10Speaker 2: and everything now is shaken. China has over capacities and
- 10:14Speaker 2: is clearly a competitive place, so it's no more secured
- 10:18Speaker 2: place for our exports. Russian war killed lo cost energy
- 10:23Speaker 2: and the killer of our competitiveness today is a big
- 10:26Speaker 2: gap in terms of energy prices everywhere. This is why
- 10:29Speaker 2: we have to completely change our business and have an
- 10:31Speaker 2: integrated energy model, because we can deliver with nuclear and renewables,
- 10:35Speaker 2: but not without being integrated. And very clearly post Afghanistan,
- 10:44Speaker 2: some people can have doubts and the potential change in
- 10:47Speaker 2: leadership in the US means that this is not a
- 10:50Speaker 2: guarantee total total. So this is I want to insist
- 10:53Speaker 2: on that because it's super important to assess fairly the
- 10:57Speaker 2: fact that our former model is and this is not
- 11:01Speaker 2: a question of adjustment. This is not the same world
- 11:05Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five. And on top of that,
- 11:09Speaker 2: we are making the same mistakes. On top of the
- 11:11Speaker 2: key elements I mentioned, we are overregulating and underinvesting. So
- 11:16Speaker 2: just if in the two to three years to come,
- 11:19Speaker 2: if we follow our classical agenda, we will be out
- 11:22Speaker 2: of the market, I have no doubt. So I think
- 11:25Speaker 2: what we have to deliver in the two three years
- 11:27Speaker 2: to come is capital market union. My view is that
- 11:30Speaker 2: we have to rush on energy beyond what we already decided,
- 11:35Speaker 2: which will be implemented for twenty twenty six, which will
- 11:38Speaker 2: avoids the big pick and the unstability of the energy
- 11:42Speaker 2: market we had during the past few years. We corrected that,
- 11:46Speaker 2: but we have to go much faster and further, and
- 11:50Speaker 2: we need this investment shock I mentioned, and I think
- 11:54Speaker 2: the simplification agenda and let's say pose in terms of regulation,
- 11:59Speaker 2: but even the regulation in some issues it's absolutely critical.
- 12:02Speaker 1: Can you have that investment shop without issuance of joint debt?
- 12:07Speaker 2: I think you know, the best way to deliver is
- 12:10Speaker 2: not to to create big trauma at the beginning by experience.
- 12:19Speaker 1: But you persuade. You persuaded the Germans before. Can't you
- 12:21Speaker 1: do it again?
- 12:22Speaker 3: This is true?
- 12:23Speaker 2: But I was, if I want to be fair, I
- 12:27Speaker 2: was a little bit helped by a colleague called COVID
- 12:30Speaker 2: nineteen and it changed the reality. But what I think
- 12:36Speaker 2: we have an external systemic shock. I think we have
- 12:39Speaker 2: to assays that during the pandemic, we all experienced a
- 12:44Speaker 2: symmetric shock for all our economies and this is why
- 12:46Speaker 2: we have We made this move move with Chancellor Merkle,
- 12:49Speaker 2: and I think it was a unique movement. This is
- 12:52Speaker 2: really for me a fundamental change of our EU. Now.
- 12:58Speaker 2: I want to be totally aware of the fact that
- 13:01Speaker 2: we are leaving a symmetric shock on our economies whose
- 13:07Speaker 2: scale and magnitude is underestimated because the real location factor
- 13:12Speaker 2: is huge. Look at the chemical industry in Europe completely
- 13:16Speaker 2: being relocated because of area I mentioned. If you don't
- 13:20Speaker 2: deliver the level playing filled a gender, we will be
- 13:24Speaker 2: super happy with rich as a good regulation for European consumer,
- 13:29Speaker 2: but no more existing chemical industry and it will be
- 13:34Speaker 2: the same for still it will be the same for
- 13:37Speaker 2: I mean the existing business we have because of energy
- 13:41Speaker 2: costs and overregulation. So we have to fix energy issue
- 13:45Speaker 2: and overregulation and for me the single market on energy
- 13:50Speaker 2: and on top of that diversification of our phonitions to
- 13:54Speaker 2: reduce this discrepancy and acceleration of playing field agenda under
- 14:01Speaker 2: and pose in terms of regulation. It's critical and if
- 14:05Speaker 2: we don't have the level playing fielder agenda, we will
- 14:07Speaker 2: be killed in this market. And in parallel, for clean
- 14:10Speaker 2: energy and artificial intelligence, we have to invest much more
- 14:14Speaker 2: rapidly and protect as well or key players, otherwise they
- 14:18Speaker 2: will be relocated in the US.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Wears Henrik. I mentioned the joint debt question, but actually
- 14:25Speaker 1: there's a broader issue here that you listen to President Macron,
- 14:29Speaker 1: you read the drug E report, you read many speeches
- 14:33Speaker 1: frankly from European leaders, but not from the German Chancellor,
- 14:38Speaker 1: not from German leaders assessing the threat to the growth
- 14:43Speaker 1: model in as fundamentally as this the stark language that
- 14:48Speaker 1: President Macron has used, how does Europe move forward, rush
- 14:54Speaker 1: forward on this agenda if there isn't that understanding, that
- 14:57Speaker 1: same analysis at the top in Germany.
- 15:00Speaker 6: I'm not sure that you don't share the analysis with
- 15:03Speaker 6: with mister with the Chancellor Shultz. Obviously he's a different person.
- 15:09Speaker 6: But I think the analysis that we need simplification what
- 15:12Speaker 6: you were just saying, we need more investment, we have
- 15:14Speaker 6: less regulation. I think that is something which you know
- 15:19Speaker 6: the chancell he also says, I think that's a fundamental issue.
- 15:24Speaker 6: I think capital market union, as I said, is an
- 15:26Speaker 6: important step. But in the end, and you know, he
- 15:29Speaker 6: has been remarkable European. I remember when you first came.
- 15:35Speaker 6: You're actually a chapper for a while. If I may
- 15:37Speaker 6: say that, yeah, is together, right, but he has moved
- 15:42Speaker 6: on a lot.
- 15:44Speaker 1: I don't think you should feel bad. I think it's okay.
- 15:48Speaker 6: And of course you know he's there's a reason why
- 15:52Speaker 6: he's moved on and and and so he you know,
- 15:54Speaker 6: he came on stage and he said, we want Europe,
- 15:57Speaker 6: and you give your speech, and there was a bait
- 16:00Speaker 6: whether Germany was responding appropriate to the young French president
- 16:05Speaker 6: who was doing that. But I think he was always
- 16:10Speaker 6: this good European and I think we're very lucky to
- 16:12Speaker 6: have him actually as a European. Also if you think
- 16:15Speaker 6: about the latest developments in your country, if I may
- 16:17Speaker 6: say so, mister president, and also in our country. And
- 16:20Speaker 6: I think the ultimate problem always in the end, and
- 16:23Speaker 6: you alluded to, is that there's still no European answer
- 16:27Speaker 6: to many of these things. But it's not easy in Europe,
- 16:30Speaker 6: you know, with and even if I may say so,
- 16:32Speaker 6: if Germany and France you said on Capitol market Union
- 16:34Speaker 6: in Meserbach, you have a paper which took us I
- 16:37Speaker 6: think ten years or something to get a French and
- 16:40Speaker 6: a German position on that. So the leadership of Germany
- 16:43Speaker 6: and France is very very important. I think the only
- 16:46Speaker 6: way actually to move Europe forward. I think that's also
- 16:49Speaker 6: your view. But are the others then also in the
- 16:52Speaker 6: future more likely to fall in line in terms of
- 16:55Speaker 6: moving Europe forward.
- 16:56Speaker 1: Maybe it took ten years to have Franco German agreement
- 16:59Speaker 1: on that, but we've only got a few days to
- 17:00Speaker 1: have Franco German agreement on the tariffs on Chinese electrical vehicles,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and you mentioned it in your speech on this stage.
- 17:09Speaker 1: A year ago. Actually, I spoke to Chancellor Schultz who
- 17:13Speaker 1: said he didn't want to see a trade war with China.
- 17:16Speaker 1: He didn't like tariffs. His minister earlier said something quite similar.
- 17:22Speaker 1: But there is a vote on whether those tariffs go
- 17:25Speaker 1: through on Friday, So can I just ask do you
- 17:27Speaker 1: think that will pass, that the EU governments will confirm
- 17:31Speaker 1: those tariffs.
- 17:32Speaker 2: I don't know before the vote. I can tell you
- 17:34Speaker 2: that I do support the European Commission on that because
- 17:40Speaker 2: what I was speaking about electrical vehicles on the European market,
- 17:46Speaker 2: and what is the reality you have the European car makers.
- 17:50Speaker 2: They go to the market and by the way, we
- 17:53Speaker 2: use our taxpayers money to subsidize the consumer to buy
- 17:56Speaker 2: this these cars and they have to compete with some
- 18:00Speaker 2: car makers producing in China with an existing advantage. But
- 18:04Speaker 2: it's part of the offshoring production because reproduce in much
- 18:08Speaker 2: lower cost condition. But on top of that they benefit
- 18:12Speaker 2: from subsidies from the Chinese government. This is a bias
- 18:16Speaker 2: for your market. The question is which model do you choose?
- 18:20Speaker 2: Do you want to be a consumer or a producer.
- 18:22Speaker 2: And now this is the dilemma we have. Twenty years
- 18:25Speaker 2: ago for solar panels, we decided to kill our markets
- 18:28Speaker 2: and we exactly we had the same dilemma. We did choose.
- 18:32Speaker 2: We killed our industry. We had an existing industry, we
- 18:34Speaker 2: killed it and we deployed solar panels in a lot
- 18:38Speaker 2: of places Chinese once. So we created a dependency which
- 18:42Speaker 2: could create some problem.
- 18:43Speaker 3: We experiment that in.
- 18:43Speaker 2: COVID time and we killed the ability to produce on
- 18:47Speaker 2: the European soil. It's not a good idea when you
- 18:50Speaker 2: need growth and you have to finance such a social
- 18:54Speaker 2: model as the one we have. Now, the question is
- 18:59Speaker 2: do we want a fair competition or not. I do
- 19:03Speaker 2: want fair competition. So the EU Commission launched precisely a
- 19:12Speaker 2: series of studios exchange with all the car makers and
- 19:16Speaker 2: just correct the level of discrepancies to establish the level
- 19:21Speaker 2: playing field, so you have something from nine to ten
- 19:25Speaker 2: for those who are less helped, and I think the
- 19:28Speaker 2: range is between twenty one and thirty five person TIFs.
- 19:32Speaker 3: This is a matter of credibility.
- 19:33Speaker 2: For our market, and I insist on that if you
- 19:37Speaker 2: don't preserve the level of playing field, just don't hope
- 19:39Speaker 2: that you want to produce and preserve you're in the
- 19:42Speaker 2: scale foot print in your hope.
- 19:43Speaker 1: You speak the Chancellor shops earlier. I think it is
- 19:45Speaker 1: a did you make progress? Unfortunately you didn't even have
- 19:49Speaker 1: any advisers in the room and the reporters were unable.
- 19:52Speaker 1: No chance of us finding out. So I ask.
- 19:55Speaker 3: And I do respect.
- 19:57Speaker 2: All the positions and the sensit of the market. I
- 20:01Speaker 2: think the question is what will become the Chinese market
- 20:06Speaker 2: for the for the car makers. My view is that
- 20:11Speaker 2: it did change during the past few years and it
- 20:13Speaker 2: should not be underestimated. The US just put a one
- 20:17Speaker 2: hundred person tax one hundred person tax undifferentiated, so let's
- 20:23Speaker 2: wake up. We live in the same world. You cannot
- 20:26Speaker 2: have China over subsidizing a lot of countries, even India
- 20:30Speaker 2: and others reacting to these subsidies, the US overreacting by
- 20:34Speaker 2: one hundred person trife and the od thing. You're welcome
- 20:39Speaker 2: and it doesn't fly. Otherwise we will be happy consumers
- 20:46Speaker 2: of non European producers. I can tell you we will
- 20:49Speaker 2: have an issue of growth in a few years time.
- 20:52Speaker 1: You spoke about the importance of Europe speaking with one
- 20:55Speaker 1: voice in order to get one voice on this, would
- 20:58Speaker 1: you be would do you agree to a delay or
- 21:01Speaker 1: some kind of compromise or you think.
- 21:03Speaker 2: I want to be efficient and find compromise and respect
- 21:05Speaker 2: all the positions. I think the I want to advocate
- 21:09Speaker 2: the CEO Commission. They did a great job. It was
- 21:13Speaker 2: bold to do so, honestly because they had a lot
- 21:15Speaker 2: of pressure not to do it. And in the DNA
- 21:18Speaker 2: of the Commission, you know that you work there, Larsendric
- 21:21Speaker 2: during Earth it was not in the DNA of the
- 21:24Speaker 2: European Commission to work on this type of issue.
- 21:27Speaker 3: And I think it's for me.
- 21:29Speaker 2: This is a signal that clearly we have a much
- 21:35Speaker 2: more strategic and geo strategic commission as we wanted than before.
- 21:41Speaker 3: But clearly I want to insist in that we are
- 21:44Speaker 3: not just a market or consumers, and we were used
- 21:50Speaker 3: just to behave following the nine and this is not
- 21:52Speaker 3: a good idea.
- 21:53Speaker 1: You talked about protectionism as an ugly word, and that
- 21:57Speaker 1: it's about having a more realistic strategic vision, as the
- 22:01Speaker 1: US does and certainly as China does. I wonder if,
- 22:05Speaker 1: at the same time as having these tariffs for a
- 22:07Speaker 1: level playing field, if you were to support, for example,
- 22:12Speaker 1: finally moving ahead with Mercasoor, would that send a message
- 22:16Speaker 1: to other parts of the world that Europe is still
- 22:18Speaker 1: open for business, that this is a specific thing with China,
- 22:21Speaker 1: but actually Europe is still very much open to trade deals.
- 22:25Speaker 2: I'm in favor of any deal which will be fair.
- 22:31Speaker 1: Does it look fair right now?
- 22:34Speaker 3: Why?
- 22:34Speaker 2: Because exactly the same reason level playing field. You cannot
- 22:39Speaker 2: impose a bunch of regulation to your industries and your
- 22:45Speaker 2: farmers that they are digesting by the way, because it's
- 22:48Speaker 2: not yet completed, and at the same time open to
- 22:51Speaker 2: economies totally designed with this regulation. How do you want
- 22:56Speaker 2: to explain to a farmer that you will be it
- 23:00Speaker 2: will not be allowed to use this pesticide, this chemical
- 23:08Speaker 2: ingredient and so on. And at the same time on
- 23:10Speaker 2: ease sector you say you are more than Maltam. You
- 23:13Speaker 2: can come with your food without respecting the same all. Honestly,
- 23:17Speaker 2: I I never advocate regulation that I don't understand myself,
- 23:24Speaker 2: and I think this is a good rule and and
- 23:28Speaker 2: don't be naive.
- 23:30Speaker 3: We speak about Marco Shore. Brazil just imposed tariff.
- 23:34Speaker 2: For if It as well, and in the can system
- 23:38Speaker 2: they want to exclude public procurement for the deal from
- 23:41Speaker 2: the deal. They protect themselves, the protect the economies. And
- 23:46Speaker 2: my point is just we I think a lot of
- 23:49Speaker 2: people in Europe underestimated what happened during the past two
- 23:53Speaker 2: to three years. But we had two huge shocks which
- 23:57Speaker 2: could completely change our approach. And why in Ukraine the
- 24:03Speaker 2: end of our energtical model and the end of the
- 24:07Speaker 2: WT or order. I love and Gozi, I'm a strong
- 24:12Speaker 2: advocate of the W two. Understand me. But just for
- 24:16Speaker 2: the first time in our recent histories, the US decided
- 24:19Speaker 2: not to be compliant with the wtwo for clintech. But
- 24:24Speaker 2: this is too you change. If we stay and stick
- 24:26Speaker 2: to the same policy we are, we have no chance.
- 24:29Speaker 1: One of the big features of your presidency in the
- 24:33Speaker 1: first few years, President Macron was that strength at home
- 24:38Speaker 1: gave you strength in Europe. You made decisive reforms the
- 24:43Speaker 1: employment many other things. You've got the fiscal house in order,
- 24:48Speaker 1: and that gave you the power to push things through.
- 24:52Speaker 1: I think many people here will be looking at the
- 24:54Speaker 1: time what has happened in the last few months in France,
- 24:57Speaker 1: the fragility of the new government under Messi Baltney, and
- 25:03Speaker 1: wondering whether you still have that capacity to push through change.
- 25:09Speaker 1: Do you worry that it was a mistake to call
- 25:11Speaker 1: that election.
- 25:12Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. Why because it never happened
- 25:16Speaker 2: without a coavitation in France to be re elected. So
- 25:19Speaker 2: I'm very lucid about my situation and we had a
- 25:24Speaker 2: relative majority without any partners, so I called for snap
- 25:28Speaker 2: elections for this reason. After two little bit more than
- 25:31Speaker 2: two years, well we delivered. I mean, during the past
- 25:33Speaker 2: two years we delivered the reform of indemnification of unemployed people,
- 25:39Speaker 2: a pension scheme reform, an immigration reform. I mean, when
- 25:42Speaker 2: I look around in Europe, I don't see a lot
- 25:44Speaker 2: of countries deploying such a reform agenda. So we were
- 25:48Speaker 2: under pressure, and I was very clear on the fact
- 25:52Speaker 2: that when you have the far right more than thirty
- 25:54Speaker 2: five persons, you cannot follow up during three years to come,
- 25:58Speaker 2: because I had three years to without making a move.
- 26:02Speaker 2: But I think you should not see that as a
- 26:04Speaker 2: source of instability. The reaction of the French people was
- 26:09Speaker 2: the opposite, because if they had confirmed the thirty five
- 26:13Speaker 2: person for the far right and what a lot of
- 26:15Speaker 2: people thought, I would have a far rightist prime minister.
- 26:19Speaker 3: Today it's not a case.
- 26:21Speaker 2: So what we had for the first time in our history,
- 26:24Speaker 2: which is much more the custom in your country and
- 26:28Speaker 2: a lot of European country, is a fragmented parliament. Fine,
- 26:32Speaker 2: this is less our culture to have cooperation between the parties.
- 26:35Speaker 2: This is my problem. So I'm trying to create this
- 26:40Speaker 2: dialectic work between the parties to work together. It's not
- 26:45Speaker 2: a natural move, but I'm reasonably optimistic about the fact
- 26:48Speaker 2: that reasonable social Democrats, Centrists and reasonable rightists can work
- 26:53Speaker 2: together for the years to come to deliver strong agenda.
- 26:57Speaker 2: And what we have to do is first to preserve
- 26:59Speaker 2: and die just all the reforms we delivered dur in
- 27:01Speaker 2: the past seven years, and we have to deliver more
- 27:07Speaker 2: for our young people. We have to complete what we
- 27:11Speaker 2: did an apprenticeship to have better and faster access to
- 27:14Speaker 2: the market is one of the key points for the
- 27:17Speaker 2: French system to have more growth. We have to follow
- 27:20Speaker 2: up what we did on the unemployment system. We have
- 27:25Speaker 2: to work on the access to our labor market for
- 27:30Speaker 2: senior workers, and we have a lot of sectorial reform
- 27:37Speaker 2: to be launched. We have in France. This is our chance,
- 27:41Speaker 2: the ability, even with a relative majority, to deliver these
- 27:44Speaker 2: reforms at the parliament. But I think we can create
- 27:47Speaker 2: dynamic and I do trust mister Baneer's government to be
- 27:52Speaker 2: in this situation to deliver useful reform for the countries.
- 27:56Speaker 2: Because the agenda is quite clear. We have to modernize
- 27:59Speaker 2: the country to be part of this agenda. We have
- 28:02Speaker 2: to deliver at the European scale, and at the same
- 28:05Speaker 2: time we have to make more effort on social coasion
- 28:10Speaker 2: and stability of the country. This is normal in the
- 28:16Speaker 2: lifetime of the country after seven years. So I'm totally
- 28:19Speaker 2: lucid about that and optimistic. But I want to focus
- 28:22Speaker 2: on the fact that today the key points of the
- 28:26Speaker 2: reform agenda for me is at the European scale. I
- 28:30Speaker 2: think we put in place a lot of reforms that
- 28:34Speaker 2: now we have to deliver, and we have to deliver
- 28:36Speaker 2: in concrete terms, we have less laws to be passed
- 28:40Speaker 2: and what points on the pension scheme is for the
- 28:42Speaker 2: years to come, and it's already voted, but the key
- 28:46Speaker 2: elements are to be decided at the European scale, and
- 28:49Speaker 2: I think if we want to improve our growth, both
- 28:51Speaker 2: in Germany and France, for me, the top of my
- 28:54Speaker 2: priority are at the European scale, because this is where
- 28:57Speaker 2: we can unlock a lot of growth and potentials.
- 29:01Speaker 1: But Las Henric, when you have a country coming to
- 29:04Speaker 1: these discussions that has a six percent of GDP budget
- 29:08Speaker 1: deficit as France now has one hundred and ten percent debt,
- 29:12Speaker 1: is having to have an extended period to get back
- 29:15Speaker 1: within the convergence criteria. That is not a strong negotiating position.
- 29:21Speaker 1: You mean that country has, that country being France.
- 29:24Speaker 6: I don't think that negotiation position of France depends on
- 29:27Speaker 6: the the budget deficit. I think there's more to that
- 29:31Speaker 6: than just that one. So I think the problem of
- 29:35Speaker 6: debt in the world, I think is an issue, and
- 29:37Speaker 6: I think Europe needs to be careful of having prudent
- 29:43Speaker 6: fiscal rules and stimulus and I think that's important. But
- 29:46Speaker 6: I think I agree with aman with President macrant that
- 29:50Speaker 6: it is much more of a European issue, I think
- 29:53Speaker 6: the future of Europe than it is a domestic French one,
- 29:55Speaker 6: as he has done a lot of the reforms when
- 29:57Speaker 6: he became president.
- 29:59Speaker 2: I mean to be just to highlight the point and
- 30:01Speaker 2: make it clear why are we in the situation. We
- 30:05Speaker 2: had an issue during the low growth this year, so
- 30:07Speaker 2: we have less written on our budget in terms of taxes.
- 30:11Speaker 2: This is why we have this discrepancy with the forecast.
- 30:14Speaker 2: And we had a difference in terms of forecast with
- 30:17Speaker 2: some public expenditure at the local level, but more than that.
- 30:22Speaker 2: To understand the French metrics we started to diverge in
- 30:27Speaker 2: the eighties because we build progressively a much more generous
- 30:30Speaker 2: social model. The main factor of adjustment if you take
- 30:36Speaker 2: our balance sheet, I would say is clearly pension reforms
- 30:40Speaker 2: and healthcare system. This is why it was a necessary
- 30:42Speaker 2: to pass this pension reform. Probably in the next mandates,
- 30:46Speaker 2: my successor will have to pass another one if they
- 30:48Speaker 2: want to adjust. But the main focus and I put
- 30:51Speaker 2: my energy on one point, how to create more activity.
- 30:56Speaker 2: And during the past seven years, because of our tax reforms,
- 31:00Speaker 2: because our label laws reforms, because our attractiveness agenda. We've
- 31:05Speaker 2: been the number one country in terms of attracted nets
- 31:07Speaker 2: during the past five years. We created more than two
- 31:11Speaker 2: million jobs when we decreased, even with COVID, even with
- 31:16Speaker 2: u crenils, by more than two points our unemployment rate.
- 31:23Speaker 2: So we are converging and for me this is the
- 31:25Speaker 2: main topic because if we had the same level of
- 31:29Speaker 2: activity as Germany, we will don't have public deficits and
- 31:33Speaker 2: it's much smarter to look to work on that than
- 31:37Speaker 2: being obsessed by a short term adjustment, which is a
- 31:40Speaker 2: killer for growth. The top priority of the French economy
- 31:44Speaker 2: should be how to be sure that you improve the
- 31:48Speaker 2: activity rates of young people because we have I think
- 31:52Speaker 2: two to three points less than Germany. Your system is
- 31:55Speaker 2: more efficient, let's be clear. So yes, you need political
- 31:59Speaker 2: courage and you have to be fair with your people.
- 32:01Speaker 2: But the solution is not to have a short term
- 32:05Speaker 2: adjustment by cutting some social expenditure because it's super hard
- 32:09Speaker 2: without any agenda, or over taxing because we don't we
- 32:13Speaker 2: don't have a lot of room to maneuver in terms
- 32:15Speaker 2: of taxation given the fact that we are number one
- 32:17Speaker 2: or two.
- 32:18Speaker 3: It depends with Denmark in Europe.
- 32:20Speaker 1: Yes, the gender I mean the cuts that are being
- 32:23Speaker 1: proposed just for next year. To make Monsieur Barney's numbers
- 32:26Speaker 1: add up. We have a squeezing of the deficit by
- 32:31Speaker 1: sixty billion euros exactly next year, some of which will
- 32:35Speaker 1: be taxes on wealthy individuals and big businesses. Are there
- 32:39Speaker 1: are any higher taxes that you would.
- 32:41Speaker 3: They will discuss that.
- 32:42Speaker 2: I think having an exceptional taxation on corporate is something
- 32:46Speaker 2: which is well understood by large companies. If this is
- 32:50Speaker 2: for one year in given the level of a thought
- 32:55Speaker 2: which should be made, but it should be limited. And
- 32:58Speaker 2: we don't have to I mean, we have not to
- 33:01Speaker 2: forget the reality of our economy, the reality of our
- 33:05Speaker 2: competitiveness and our position. Just take an OCD comparison. We
- 33:10Speaker 2: are number one or two in terms of taxation. We
- 33:13Speaker 2: are not in the best tier in terms of level.
- 33:17Speaker 3: Of activity and.
- 33:20Speaker 2: How working participation or house to be worked per year.
- 33:25Speaker 3: So this is what we have to improve.
- 33:26Speaker 1: But as you say, the most important things that you
- 33:28Speaker 1: can do for the long term is the reforms like
- 33:30Speaker 1: the pension reform, And that is another reason why people worry.
- 33:35Speaker 1: They look at the cost of the uncertainty of the
- 33:37Speaker 1: last few months, and you say that the far right
- 33:41Speaker 1: threat has been contained with this new arrangement. But Marie
- 33:46Speaker 1: Le Penn wants to reverse that pension reform and tomorrow
- 33:50Speaker 1: she could call a confidence vote and probably bring down
- 33:52Speaker 1: the government over that. So do you think that there
- 33:55Speaker 1: will be an effort to overturn the pension reform?
- 33:58Speaker 2: I think when you look at the figure sincere with
- 34:01Speaker 2: people all the reasonable parties, we look at the fact
- 34:06Speaker 2: that this pension reformed and these key metrics has to
- 34:09Speaker 2: be preserved, and we have a structure with all our unions,
- 34:14Speaker 2: and this structure now is very clear and issould figure
- 34:16Speaker 2: that it was a.
- 34:17Speaker 3: Necessity to do so.
- 34:19Speaker 2: And after a dissolution you cannot change the parliament during
- 34:23Speaker 2: at least one year time. But I want what I
- 34:26Speaker 2: want to to tell you. If I did not ask
- 34:28Speaker 2: for this election, I could be in front of you
- 34:30Speaker 2: and you would tell me, okay, you cannot go for
- 34:32Speaker 2: election in two and a half years. Look at the
- 34:35Speaker 2: course they are air and they were in a situation
- 34:38Speaker 2: to call for a confident vote and force me for
- 34:41Speaker 2: a dissolution, and I wouldn't answer. Now, we were bold collectively.
- 34:48Speaker 2: I took my responsibility. I asked often people, do you
- 34:51Speaker 2: want them to govern. They answered very clearly, no, eleven
- 34:56Speaker 2: million of my people did vote for them. So it
- 34:59Speaker 2: means that there is a anger, fears and clearly some
- 35:03Speaker 2: top priorities that we have to face on security, on
- 35:08Speaker 2: social justice, on the ground, the situation of our neighborhood
- 35:11Speaker 2: and on rural areas. And so this is the agenda.
- 35:14Speaker 2: We will have to fix that the governments in front
- 35:16Speaker 2: of him, but they didn't give the flow to them.
- 35:20Speaker 2: And look at the situation everywhere in Europe. Look at
- 35:22Speaker 2: what happened in Austria, look at what happened in Nezerlands,
- 35:26Speaker 2: look at what happened in Italy, look at what's happening
- 35:29Speaker 2: in a lot of lender in your country. So this
- 35:32Speaker 2: is why I'm a strong advocate of EU growth agenda,
- 35:37Speaker 2: because this is the only way to give a return
- 35:40Speaker 2: to our middle classes. Otherwise this is a killer for them,
- 35:45Speaker 2: and this is the only way to reconcile economy and
- 35:49Speaker 2: the reality of politics. But don't you think that having
- 35:54Speaker 2: farmers to which you ask for reforms and efforts, and
- 35:59Speaker 2: at the same time you expec I will welcome the
- 36:01Speaker 2: sawyer being coming from Mercursire is the best way to
- 36:04Speaker 2: kill the far right, I can tell you for my country,
- 36:08Speaker 2: not at all. And at the end of the day,
- 36:11Speaker 2: do you think what is the priority today for all
- 36:14Speaker 2: of us? Delivering grows and political stability, meaning fixing the
- 36:19Speaker 2: anxiety of our societies and convincing reasonable people in our
- 36:23Speaker 2: middle classes not.
- 36:24Speaker 3: To go to the extremes.
- 36:26Speaker 2: But let's be clear, didn't we deliver collectively good policies
- 36:30Speaker 2: for our middle classes during decades? We delivered good policies
- 36:34Speaker 2: to have the maximum of exports, the maximum of profits.
- 36:37Speaker 2: But they have the feeling sometimes for good reasons. They
- 36:40Speaker 2: were the adjustment factor of our economy. This is why
- 36:44Speaker 2: preserving level playing physics, not just sacrificing a lot of
- 36:47Speaker 2: pieces of our economy where these middle classes work.
- 36:52Speaker 3: I try to be consistent.
- 36:54Speaker 1: You have defended very clearly why you took that decision
- 36:57Speaker 1: to call the election in the summer, and at the
- 36:59Speaker 1: time you said it was for clarity, and I guess
- 37:03Speaker 1: some people would say you didn't get the clarity. But
- 37:06Speaker 1: would you make the same decision again, Yes, because I
- 37:10Speaker 1: sat in the next two years.
- 37:12Speaker 3: No, no, no.
- 37:14Speaker 2: My view is that we have to preserve now till
- 37:16Speaker 2: the end of my mandate. But it's important because this
- 37:20Speaker 2: is a new phase of the political modernization of France
- 37:22Speaker 2: as well. I was elected in twenty seventeen in this
- 37:27Speaker 2: commitment precisely to go beyond the party system, and I
- 37:32Speaker 2: gathered with me people coming from the left, the right,
- 37:35Speaker 2: in the center on a common project. And now the
- 37:38Speaker 2: question is how to work collectively with not just my
- 37:42Speaker 2: party but other parties. This is a new way to
- 37:47Speaker 2: move forward at the Parliament. But this is a very
- 37:50Speaker 2: positive one for me, and this is the only one
- 37:53Speaker 2: to provide stability and not to be precisely super sensitive
- 37:58Speaker 2: to the extremes s time. We need bold reforms and
- 38:02Speaker 2: the agenda has to be both, and the Prime Minister
- 38:04Speaker 2: was right to push some key items of this agenda.
- 38:07Speaker 2: Look at the situation, nothing was sacrificed. All the reforms
- 38:11Speaker 2: are preserved, and this new government has to work with
- 38:16Speaker 2: parliament and progressively with build consensus. So I'm not naive,
- 38:22Speaker 2: I'm a husumance to be optimistic, but I think at
- 38:24Speaker 2: the same time we have to accelerate to deliver a
- 38:27Speaker 2: positive the U agendas.
- 38:33Speaker 1: Mister President, I want to take you right back the
- 38:35Speaker 1: final question. We've run out of time, but from where
- 38:37Speaker 1: we started, which was the sense of urgency you had
- 38:40Speaker 1: in your remarks that you felt everybody in Europe should
- 38:43Speaker 1: feel about the challenges facing the European growth model. And
- 38:48Speaker 1: as you know, often in Europe it's a moment of crisis.
- 38:52Speaker 1: It's when politicians are looking over the ledge that they
- 38:55Speaker 1: actually have done things. Whether it's the global financial crisis
- 38:57Speaker 1: or as you mentioned, COVID, the invasion of Ukraine, all
- 39:01Speaker 1: of those things have forced changed. As an economist, I
- 39:04Speaker 1: would think that the fact that the EU could be
- 39:06Speaker 1: forty percent smaller than the US in twenty years time,
- 39:08Speaker 1: if it carries on like this is a bit of
- 39:10Speaker 1: a is a crisis, but it's a slow moving one.
- 39:15Speaker 1: Will it take an outside force to force this kind
- 39:18Speaker 1: of change? And I wonder in that context, with the
- 39:20Speaker 1: return of Donald Trump as president, help you get some
- 39:24Speaker 1: of this done.
- 39:25Speaker 2: Look, I think it could have consequences of the defense
- 39:29Speaker 2: and security part of the agenda for sure, good consequences, consequences,
- 39:35Speaker 2: but I think we should be honestly, I don't want
- 39:38Speaker 2: to speculate on the US elections. My point more than
- 39:41Speaker 2: that is that US is a very strong partner. This
- 39:44Speaker 2: is a very important lie. But whoever will be elected
- 39:47Speaker 2: and whatever the administration is, I think we have to
- 39:51Speaker 2: be lucid on our situation. Europe is normal as the
- 39:56Speaker 2: top priority of the US. The U top priority is US,
- 40:03Speaker 2: which is normal and unfair. The second top priority is China,
- 40:08Speaker 2: and for the rest it depends.
- 40:09Speaker 3: On the moment.
- 40:10Speaker 2: They are super loyal and reliable partner in Ukraine. Will
- 40:13Speaker 2: it last, I don't know, but let's be clear. At
- 40:16Speaker 2: the same time, in Afghanistan we didn't have the call before,
- 40:19Speaker 2: and in the Ocus deal in Australia, I didn't have
- 40:22Speaker 2: the call before.
- 40:24Speaker 3: But it's not a reproach. I try to be lucid.
- 40:28Speaker 2: The EU is not the priority of the US, and
- 40:31Speaker 2: this is why part of the wake up call period
- 40:33Speaker 2: of time we are living and part of what we
- 40:36Speaker 2: have to completely reshape is our defense and security strategy.
- 40:40Speaker 2: We are part of NATO, no discussion. We are stronger
- 40:44Speaker 2: lives the US no discussion, But we have to derisk
- 40:47Speaker 2: our model from the US agenda. This is why we
- 40:50Speaker 2: have to invest much more for ourselves. We have to
- 40:53Speaker 2: create much more European solutions. We have to preserve much
- 40:56Speaker 2: more our financing for European solutions.
- 40:59Speaker 3: This is a priority.
- 41:01Speaker 2: But what you say is very important and this is
- 41:05Speaker 2: why I try to be vocal. And we moved under
- 41:11Speaker 2: the pressure of crisis when they were perceived by our
- 41:13Speaker 2: fellow citizens, the financial crisis and the COVID crisis. You
- 41:19Speaker 2: all here, business leaders, political leaders, intellectual leaders. Our responsibility,
- 41:25Speaker 2: your responsibility, our collective responsibility if to explain our fellow
- 41:30Speaker 2: citizens that this is a symmetric shock for Europe. They
- 41:34Speaker 2: don't see now the results and the consequences. But our
- 41:38Speaker 2: responsibilities is to prehend the situation and to act now,
- 41:43Speaker 2: otherwise it will be a rescue plan in five to
- 41:45Speaker 2: ten years time.
- 41:47Speaker 3: And we know the situation.
- 41:48Speaker 2: The figures are clear, the trends are very clear. So
- 41:51Speaker 2: our responsibility as leaders is precisely to say, okay, we
- 41:55Speaker 2: feel the pressure and for me, Europe can make smart
- 41:59Speaker 2: moves when we have symmetric shock. During the financial crisis,
- 42:03Speaker 2: don't overestimate. We did react, but we didn't take automatically
- 42:07Speaker 2: all the right decisions because it was an asymmetric shock.
- 42:11Speaker 2: And we fixed this crisis much more slowly than the
- 42:15Speaker 2: US because we were precisely divided between north and South.
- 42:22Speaker 2: It was a weakness. It was before bunking Union and
- 42:24Speaker 2: such a level of integration, but it was an asymmetric shock,
- 42:28Speaker 2: meaning we didn't have the same interest today we can
- 42:31Speaker 2: have in the nitty gritty some different interest. You are
- 42:34Speaker 2: much more invested in car making business. Fine, which creates
- 42:37Speaker 2: this kind of discrepancy. But in reality we are already
- 42:42Speaker 2: aligned because it's already too late. If I'm fair, it's
- 42:48Speaker 2: already too late. So we should be aligned and just
- 42:51Speaker 2: look at the situation. Whatever our differences in the energy
- 42:55Speaker 2: system could be or industrial system, this is a symmetric
- 42:59Speaker 2: shock for the European societies and economies. So we have
- 43:03Speaker 2: to precisely deliver this in depth reform on our governance,
- 43:08Speaker 2: on security and defense and the growth model, if just
- 43:12Speaker 2: we want to deliver for our people, and this is
- 43:14Speaker 2: the best way, by the way to help all the
- 43:17Speaker 2: countries precisely to limit and get rid of the extremes
- 43:25Speaker 2: because they are just held by the recent amount of
- 43:28Speaker 2: people and the lack of collective efficient.
- 43:31Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, you've had your marching orders from mister President,
- 43:35Speaker 1: and I think we have we've run out of time,
- 43:38Speaker 1: so thank you very much, mister President, and Las Hendricks
- 43:42Speaker 1: very much. Thanks for listening to this week's photonomics from Bloomberg.
- 43:55Speaker 1: This episode was hosted by me Stephanie Flanders, with a
- 43:58Speaker 1: Legra Stratton and Adrian Mordridge. It was produced by Samma
- 44:01Speaker 1: Sadi with production support from Chris Martlou and Isabella Ward.
- 44:05Speaker 1: Sound design by Moses and Am and Brendan Francis Newnham
- 44:09Speaker 1: is our executive producer. Sage Bowman is head of Bloomberg
- 44:13Speaker 1: Podcast and this week we have special thanks to Julia Manns,
- 44:17Speaker 1: the Berlin Global Dialogue, President of France, Emmanuel Macron and
- 44:21Speaker 1: Lars Henrik Roler. Please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast
- 44:26Speaker 1: wherever you listen to it.