Europe seeks a Leader

Seventy years since the evacuation of Dunkirk and France may soon be seeking a way forward as critically important as in the aftermath of the British evacuation across the Channel. This time many more feasible options appear available. This afternoon the French Prime Minister, François Fillon, will set out his plans for the economy and face a vote of confidence.

In the unusual absence from the public view of President Sarkosy, busy socialising with the Mayors of the nation, perhaps some route out of Europe's present disastrous mess will be discerned in the Prime Minister's speech. Chancellor Merkel describing the situation as "exceptionally serious" while accurate, was hardly helpful, and seemed to this blogger a dereliction of duty.

France is unusual in Europe at present having a majority government with some reasonable time remaining in its mandate. Will Europeans today be offered some tiny glimpse of some feasible and realistic way forward that will begin to ease rather than add to the Continent's enormous piles of debt? Could removal from the ECB of Jean-Claude Trichet architect of both the early nineteen-nineties ERM collapse and now the Euro currency disintegration not prove a striking message of firm intent?