President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a €430 million ($550 million) plan to drive down unemployment and restart growth Wednesday, a move criticized as an attempt to boost his popularity three months before France's presidential election. With the unemployment rate pushing 10 percent and the recent downgrade of France's credit rating by Standard & Poor's, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande is hitting the president hard, saying the financial crisis reflects Sarkozy's failed economic stewardship. Sarkozy, who is trailing Hollande in polls, has countered that the crisis is Europe-wide and that French people who are suffering need help now. To that end, he met with business and labor leaders on Wednesday to formulate a plan to create more jobs and ease the pressure on those looking for work. It's unclear whether Sarkozy's government can put the jobs plan in place before the presidential elections, held in two rounds in April and May. “The current economic situation in France as in Europe is very perilous. It's urgent,” Sarkozy said in the opening remarks of the closed-door session, according to a transcript made public by his office. In a clear nod to his critics, Sarkozy mused: “Do economic life and firings stop because there are elections? Should we stop thinking and acting because there are elections?”
