In These New Times

November 4, 2008 (LPAC)–French President Nicolas Sarkozy is raising the pressure against the banks and even sicking the media on those banks which received state money, but who are not, in turn, lending it to companies and individual clients. Credits to consumers and companies increased by EU5 billion last month, but there are many reports that on the least of excuses, banks block making loans.

On Oct. 30, there was a meeting at the Elysée, which included the newly named “credit mediator” René Ricol, the Prefects of all French départements, the state treasuries, and the main bankers, where Sarkozy said that he would not tolerate banks hoarding the money. At this meeting, Sarkozy asked the prefect (the state administrator in each department) to be “guarantors of the moral pact” signed by the banks with the national government. “René Ricol should not hesitate to go on television and in front of the media to expose the examples of intolerable credit restrictions in each department and coming from each individual company.”

In a TV interview to be aired this evening, French Prime Minister François Fillon threatened that the state would be willing to go for nationalizations if the banks don’t increase their lending. “We have the feeling that the banks are not doing their necessary job, then there are two possibilities: Either withdraw the credits which were advanced. This was the contract signed with the banks. If we take back this money, the banks will find themselves in difficulty and, therefore, at that moment the question arises of entering into their capital, perhaps changing their managers and controlling their strategy.”