France's Socialist presidential front-runner Francois Hollande accused Nicolas Sarkozy today of encouraging market speculation for political ends after the president said victory for Mr Hollande could spur a crisis of confidence in France.
With tensions between the two rivals mounting 10 days before the first presidential election round on April 22nd, Mr Sarkozy has warned that markets could take flight from French securities if Mr Hollande wins power in a May 6th runoff.
"The people do not want to have some kind of diktat imposed on them from outside, so when Nicolas Sarkozy tries to call the markets to come to his rescue that is not in the country's interest," Mr Hollande said on France 2 television.
"What is in France's interest is fighting speculation, not encouraging it under the pretext of helping him in the presidential election."
Mr Sarkozy - whose main asset in a close-fought duel against the popular but inexperienced Mr Hollande is his record of managing Europe's debt crisis - has increasingly played on fears that France under a left-wing government committed to raising spending could lose investor confidence.
Unveiling his manifesto last week, he said Mr Hollande would lead France towards the fate of Greece or Spain.
Mr Hollande is running on a tax-and-spend programme which would bring France to a balanced budget a year later than Mr Sarkozy's manifesto.
Economists say Mr Hollande's spending plans would need to be scaled back to keep France's efforts to reduce its deficit on track.
The targets are seen as crucial to Paris retaining investor faith at a time when the euro zone debt crisis refuses to abate.
"If we start hiring civil servants, if we will start spending again, if we throw the pension reform into question, it's not a risk that interest rates will rise, it's a certainty," Mr Sarkozy said yesterday. "It would immediately set off a crisis of confidence."