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by manu_te 1347 days ago
France hasn't really benefited much. Italy has been the talking point for a long time and rightly so for the amount of debt plus the chronic political instability, but France is very much on a similar decline path.

Edit: cheap Russian gas + high productivity + political stability + undervalued currency (the Deutsche mark would have been way stronger than the euro) is what fueled German dominance in Europe. Italy/France/Spain/Greece/Portugal all struggled with varying degrees with low productivity, political instability (apart from France) and a currency that was too strong for their macro-economic fundamentals.
1 comments
mytailorisrich 1347 days ago
France has a talent for self-harm although they are not the only ones.

Ultimately, Germany succeeded better because they acted better and more productively.

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tkk23 1347 days ago
To spell it out:

>President François Mitterrand argued for the single currency because he hoped to bolster French influence in an EU that would otherwise fall under the sway of a unified Germany

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2012/11/17/the-time-bomb-a...

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