Nobody failed to see the irony that it was Germany which, in the late 1990s, had insisted on a rigidstability pact as its price for accepting the euro.
It falls to him to say that in the current tepid economy, France simply can't afford to cut taxes (even though they are among the highest in the world), build up its military and still reduce its deficit by 0.5%, as the Eurozone's rigidstability pact requires it to do.