Chapter 861: Differences between Germany and France
In fact, since two or three years ago, in addition to some high-end manufacturing industries, the rest of the manufacturing industries that need to enhance competitiveness by cost have been transferred to Asia, mainly China, and Colo has also accepted a lot of industries.
He transferred to China industries such as automobiles, mobile phones, chips, etc. that require a complete industrial chain and have a certain technical content.
And the primary processing manufacturing industry has mostly been transferred to Colo - after all, the labor cost here is lower than that in China.
At the same time, with the rise in unemployment in Britain after the subprime mortgage crisis, a considerable number of British employees have been sent to China and Colo.
Yes, this kind of overseas expatriate employees need to pay overseas subsidies, and the labor cost required is slightly higher than that in Britain.
But considering that these employees can train local employees in China and Colo and bring out more local employees who meet the requirements, this temporary increase in salary costs is also acceptable.
Therefore, just like Colo, the number of employees from Britain in various industries is close to 2,000, which is not a small scale.
Fortunately, when the new government of Kolo was established, English was already one of its official languages. Although there may not be many older people who can use English, the younger generation is basically accustomed to communicating in English.
After all, although Kolo still uses English and French as official languages on the surface, in fact, in their entire education system, only English is used for teaching, and French is only a required "foreign language" - just like in Chinese schools, English has been taught since elementary school, but until graduation from university, the proportion of people who can communicate fluently in English with foreigners is not high.
This is the difference between mother tongue and first foreign language.
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“I believe that this merger between Natixis Bank and Commerzbank will become a model for cooperation between France and Germany in the financial field…”
Currently, Ashley Weber’s most important job is to facilitate Natixis Bank’s acquisition of Commerzbank. Therefore, even though she is nearly six months pregnant, she still met with German Chancellor Merkel’s representative in private when Lagarde came to Germany to promote Natixis Bank’s acquisition of Commerzbank.
She said to the other party:
“Coping with the European debt crisis is a very important task for our two countries. We must cooperate closely. Of course, we have also seen that some of President Hollande’s recent actions may seem a little inappropriate, but I believe that these actions are mainly to fulfill his campaign promises, but reality will make him change…”
Ashley Weber’s identity is not only the chairman of William-Weber Capital, the controlling shareholder of Natixis Bank, but also a member of the French political family. Hollande himself has a close relationship with the Weber family. This is why Merkel specifically asked her secretary to meet with the other party on her behalf when she came to Germany this time.
As mentioned before, France and German Chancellor Merkel had a tacit understanding in dealing with the European debt crisis during the Sarkozy era.
However, during the French election in April this year, Germany had doubts about the prospects of Franco-German cooperation after Hollande was elected because of some of Hollande's remarks about France, the European Union and the Eurozone.
In the division of the political spectrum, Hollande represents the French left, while Merkel's governing philosophy represents the right. After Hollande came to power, the ruling parties of France and Germany belonged to different political factions. This difference in philosophy was not conducive to cooperation between the two sides, or at least it was difficult to cooperate tacitly like Sarkozy.
Even after Hollande took office as French president, he immediately visited Germany, and the two countries were trying their best to maintain the friendly relationship of the "Franco-German alliance"...
However, the difference in economic philosophy led to continued discord between the two countries afterwards.
In the view of many Germans, in order to fulfill his campaign promises, Hollande took a series of measures that were not conducive to improving France's economic competitiveness, which would eventually harm France and the European Union.
For example, the French newspaper Le Figaro said that the German government is particularly worried that Hollande's economic policies will affect the vitality of EU countries in implementing structural reforms and strict budget discipline.
And former German Chancellor Schröder also bluntly criticized Hollande's economic policies after taking office at a seminar on the theme of the European Union.
Schröder believes that the current France is like Germany in 2003 - Germany was in a very bad economic environment at the time and was called the "European patient". Schröder's drastic reform measures later helped Germany out of the predicament.
Schröder reminded Hollande:
"The French president's campaign promises will eventually be smashed against the wall of economic reality."
Schröder believes that Hollande's move to advance the retirement age of some French working people from 62 to 60 after taking office is a "bad signal" and the French government does not have the financial resources to support this measure.
He also believes that Hollande's blind increase in taxes in order to achieve the deficit reduction target will not only cause the outflow of French capital, but also lead to the collapse of the French job market.
"As long as two or three wrong signals are sent to the outside world, our French friends will face a cruel reality."
In this regard, the French newspaper Le Figaro commented that Schröder voiced out the concerns that Merkel's government officials did not dare to express publicly.
When the French media asks German Chancellery and ministry officials to publicly comment on the French economic situation, they are often rejected.
However, some German officials still express their concerns about the French economic situation in private.
For example, a senior German government official said privately:
"Bild is a bit exaggerated. France is neither Greece, Spain, nor Italy. But the situation in France is worrying."
The official believes that France's neighbors are all carrying out brave economic structural reforms, and Hollande is ideologically isolated from these neighbors.
Some economists who have the greatest influence on the German government agree that Hollande has significantly increased taxes but is "too shy" in reducing spending, which will inevitably lead to the suffocation of the French economy and increase unemployment.
They believe that only structural reforms to the economy and strict budget discipline can have a positive impact on economic growth and employment.
German economists have prescribed a series of "magic pills" for Hollande to get out of the economic predicament:
Reducing wage costs, abolishing the 35-hour work system, promoting competition, reducing taxes, reforming the retirement system, etc.
However, analysts believe that as a left-wing president, Hollande may not have the courage to adopt these more right-wing economic policies.
Therefore, Ashley's words to Merkel's secretary implied that they also disagreed with some of Hollande's policies - after all, it is well known that his ideas tend to be left-wing, and he did not have much experience in governing before, so it is normal to have some "idealism" in terms of policies.
But in the final analysis, these policies of his, whether it is a fierce tax increase or a continued relaxation of workers' welfare benefits, will cause dissatisfaction among French domestic capital.
I believe that reality will soon make him adjust his policies - I believe that these are also what the German side wants to see.
