LEAKED NSA DOCUMENT French Government Official Says French Economy In "Dire Straits", "Worse Than Anyone Can Imagine"

Wikileaks has released a new batch of NSA intercepts. Among them is an intercepted communication which reveals that then French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici believes the French economic situation was far worse, as of mid-2012, than perceived.

Moscovici who served as French finance minister until 2014 and is now the European commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs,said the French economic situation was "worse than anyone [could] imagine and drastic measures [would] have to be taken in the next two years”. 

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Here is the full intercept:

French Finance Minister Says Economy in Dire Straits, Predicts Two Atrocious Years Ahead (TS//SI//NF) (TS//SI//NF) The French economic situation is worse than anyone can imagine and drastic measures will have to be taken in the next 2 years, according to Finance, Economy, and Trade Minister Pierre Moscovici.

On 19 July, Moscovici, under pressure to reestablish a preretirement unemployment supplement known as the AER, warned that the situation is dire. Upon learning that there are no funds available for the AER, French Senator Martial Bourquin warned Moscovici that without the AER program the ruling Socialist Party will have a rough time in the industrial basin of the country, with voters turning to the rightwing National Front. Moscovici disagreed, asserting that the inability to reinstitute the AER will have no impact in electoral terms, besides, the situation with faltering automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen is more important than the AER.

(COMMENT: PSA has announced plans to close assembly plants  and lay off some 8,000 workers.)

Moscovici warned that the 2013 budget is not going to be a "good news budget," with the government needing to find at least an additional 33 billion euros ($39.9 billion). Nor will 2014 be a good year. Bourquin persisted, warning that the Socialist Party will find itself in a situation similar to that of Socialist former Spanish President Zapatero, who was widely criticized for his handling of his country's debt situation. Moscovici countered that it was not Zapatero whose behavior the French government would emulate, but rather Social Democrat former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

(COMMENT: Schroeder, chancellor from 1998 to 2005, was widely credited with helping to restore German competitiveness. He favored shifting from pure austerity measures to measures that encourage economic growth and advocated a common EU financial policy.)

Unconventional

French diplomatic

Here's Moscovici's take on the Greek crisis:

Here is his comment on the NSA spying on him:

The Google translation:

 I strongly condemn intolerable plays #NSA and formally request the accounts. Relations between allies must rest on #confiance