In April and May 2012

In April and May 2012, France held a presidential election in which the winner François Hollande had opposed austerity measures, promising to eliminate France's budget deficit by 2017. The new government stated that it aimed to cancel recently enacted tax cuts and exemptions for the wealthy, raising the top tax bracket rate to 75% on incomes over a million euros, restoring the retirement age to 60 with a full pension for those who have worked 42 years, restoring 60,000 jobs recently cut from public education, regulating rent increases; and building additional public housing for the poor.
In June, Hollande's Socialist Party won a supermajority in legislative elections capable of amending the French Constitution and enabling the immediate enactment of the promised reforms. French government bond interest rates fell 30% to record lows,[141] less than 50 basis points above German government bond rates.[142]
French government debt
The French government has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s. In mid-2012, French government debt levels reached 1.833 billion euros.[143] This debt level was the equivalent of 91% of French GDP.[143]
Under European Union rules, member states are supposed to limit their debt to 60 percent of output or be reducing the ratio structurally towards this ceiling, and run public deficits of no more than 3.0 percent of GDP.[143]
In late 2012, credit rating agencies warned that growing French government debt levels risked France's AAA credit rating, raising the possibility of a future credit downgrade and subsequent higher borrowing costs for the French government

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