Europe used to be a constant in French politics: no mainstream party questioned the benefits of further integration. This year the taboo has been broken. First François Hollande, the Socialist challenger for the presidency, said that if elected, he would renegotiate the eurozone’s new fiscal pact. Then Nicolas Sarkozy declared France could pull out of the Schengen zone of border-free travel and threatened to take unilateral, protectionist measures on trade that would clearly be viewed as illegal in Brussels.
在法国政治中,欧洲曾经是一个不存在变数的问题,没有哪个主流政党质疑过增进欧洲一体化的好处。然而今年,这个“禁忌”被打破了。先是向总统大权发起挑战的社会党候选人弗朗索瓦•奥朗德(François Hollande)表示,如果能够当选,就会对欧元区的新财政协定重新进行谈判。随后,尼古拉•萨科奇(Nicolas Sarkozy)又宣称法国可能退出申根(Schengen)自由跨境旅行区,还威胁采取单边的贸易保护主义措施,而这种措施在布鲁塞尔看来肯定是非法的。