Hollande brings back July 14 talk

PRESIDENT Hollande will make a Bastille Day speech next week – reinstating a tradition abolished by Nicolas Sarkozy.

The president has stated his wish to make an official televised speech on Saturday next week, coinciding with the festivities.

This harks back to a tradition established by Mitterrand, but stopped by Sarkozy from his first year in office as a way of marking a break with the previous regime.

Hollande has said it is necessary, on this “important occasion” for him to “deliver a message to the nation”.

He is not, however bringing back this year the Elysée garden party, another tradition, that Sarkozy stopped due to the economic crisis.

The announcement comes as there is further gloomy news for the economy, with France’s budget deficit announced as having been €69.6billion this May as opposed to €68.4billion last year.

Commentators predict that the coming Corrective Finance Law will be the first in a series of tax rises and spending cuts likely to be needed to reach the aim of a balanced budget by the end of 2017.

Photo: Jean-Marc Ayrault