On Thursday, François Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate leading in the polls for the French presidency against Sarkozy, try to address complaints that he had been too vague about his plans for France and its slowing economy, issuing a package of 60 measures that would gain taxes and government spending but purpose to balance the budget by 2017.

Hollande and Sarkozy

France President Nicolas Sarkozy by augmenting taxes for corporations, banks and the comparatively wealthy, creating 60,000 teaching jobs and bringing the retirement age back down to 60, from 62. He also promised to create 150,000 subsidized jobs in areas of high unemployment, putting his grandness on better outlooks for the young, and said he wanted to boost more industry
in France by creating a kind of public investment bank.

Hollande will success where Sarkozy failed?

The 60 measures, announced at a news conference at a union hall and published in a slick paperback, seemed devised to try to bridge the political gap between Socialist promises and the need to cut France’s large budget deficit to satisfy the markets. He forecast a lower growth rate for the French economy this year than Mr. Sarkozy did, but endorsed Mr. Sarkozy’s promise to reduce the annual budget deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by the end of 2013 and to balance the budget by 2017. Although Mr. Hollande said he would spend more than Mr. Sarkozy had on  social programs, he would also raise more money through taxes.