Mon Dieu

Well, look who may be putting an end to Germany's austerity fantasies:

François Hollande, the French president, has warned for the first time that the Paris-Berlin motor driving Europe could stall over deep differences on how to resolve the euro crisis, insisting on a climbdown by Angela Merkel in her emphasis on austerity and the surrender of national powers to tighten fiscal discipline. ... 

He insisted France would "tirelessly" champion the growth agenda – "this compromise between getting out of debt and growth" – without questioning the need for budget discipline, which had been made "absolutely necessary" by the sovereign debt crisis. "Today, recession is as big a threat as deficits."

Considering the global economy has been in a period of mass layoffs and tepid growth for five years, it's nice to finally have a leader state this. It is simply shocking that he's the only one really saying it...and at best one of the small handful actually governing that way. And still Holland can only bring himself to say "as big a threat" as opposed to reality, where tepid or non-growth is a massively larger threat than deficits. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]