Senior German Lawmaker Attacks French 'Time Bomb' Policies

       By Stefan Lange 

    Rainer Bruederle, the parliamentary leader of ruling German coalition partner the Free Democrat Party, sharply criticized France's economic policies in a speech Sunday, calling the country a "time bomb at the heart of Europe."

    Mr. Bruederle, whose party governs with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in a center-right alliance, argued only strong competitiveness can help embattled economies in the long run, and called on the European Central Bank to avoid buying up Italian sovereign bonds to drive down the country's borrowing costs following the undecided election outcome in Italy.

    The ECB shouldn't become a "repair shop for unwanted election results," Mr. Bruederle said at a party conference Sunday, during which FDP delegates backed him as their candidate in national elections in September.

    In a speech lasting over an hour, Mr. Bruederle, who was Germany's economics minister from October 2009 until May 2011, slammed French economic policies, predicting the "grand nation is threatened by a grand crash."

    The Free Democrat chief whip warned of a watering-down of the stability and growth pact in the face of the French government's announcement that its growth is unlikely to be strong enough for euro zone's No. 2 economy to hit its deficit targets for 2013.

    That announcement shouldn't lead to a breach of the pact, which commits countries to tight deficit goals, Mr. Bruederle said.

    Europe is "almost yearning for a Mitterrand moment" from President Francois Hollande, according to Mr. Bruederle, referring to the economic policy U-turn by President Francois Mitterrand in the early 1980s, two years into his term.

    Mr. Bruederle also slammed the idea of a foreign-exchange target for the euro, as suggested by Mr. Hollande last month.

    "A policy of a weaker euro would be exactly the wrong policy," Mr. Bruederle said, and dampening Germany's competitiveness would also be a mistake.

    The French finance ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

    French finance minister Pierre Moscovici has regularly argued extra austerity to try to get the deficit down to the targeted 3% of gross domestic product this year would be a further threat to growth. Still, the government says it will not change course and will continue with the fiscal measures it had already announced, and will focus in spending cuts to get the deficit down to 3% of GDP next year.

    --Harriet Torry and William Horobin contributed to this 

    Write to Stefan Lange at