The visit of Prime Minister Muscat to President Hollande must have been an interesting experience for our Prime Minister. On paper this was like a meeting between the Maltese David and the French Goliath. It reality it was anything but that.
From the cultural point of view the visit showcased the great talent of Joseph Calleja. A report in timesofmalta.com said that tenor Joseph Calleja mesmerised the audience gathered at the Cathedral Saint-Louis des Invalides, in Paris, with interpretations of Malta’s national anthem and La Marseillaise. Once more, Calleja made us all proud. This success must have added kudos to the prestige of Malta and to the status of Prime Minister Muscat.
On the economic and political fields, Prime Minister Muscat must have had a lesson or two to give to Hollande. The former heads a country with one of the best employment records in the EU while the latter has not such record to boast of. Hollande has a different record which I am sure he never brags about. Unemployment in France has gone over the record figure registered in that country in 1997 – a whopping 3.2 million unemployed. France's unemployment rate as calculated by International Labour Organisation methodology has risen to 10.6 per cent!
Joost Beaumont, an economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam thinks that unemployment will likely rise further in coming months. Neither is France’s deficit anything to boast of.
Hollande recently abandoned his target of getting France's budget deficit down to 3% of annual economic output this year and will now be satisfied with 3.7%. Malta is better, and a lot better, than France also in this respect.
French economy, unlike Maltese economy, fell back into recession early last year and risks doing so again. Payrolls are being slashed in many countries. The opposite is true about Malta: our economy is experiencing growth while wages and salaries have been increased.
Besides while Malta is reducing the income tax rates for high income earners, Hollande has had to increase the taxes on high earners.
Could it be that Hollande asked our Prime Minister for some advice about how we managed to do all this while France has not succeeded?
Prime Minister Muscat could also give some advice to President Hollande on personal popularity. While a poll released last Sunday showed that the popularity of Dr Muscat iv ever high, polls released in France show that Hollande’s approval rating fell by five points to 30 percent this month, making him the most unpopular head of state since 1981, according to a TNS- Sofres poll published Feb. 28.
Tiny Malta has a lot to be proud of.