A quote from Nicolas Sarkozy during his campaign for the French presidential elections in 2007 (via Anne Kling, English translation here):

French households today have fewer debts than any other nation of Europe. Now, an economy that does not have sufficient debts is an economy that does not believe in the future, that has doubts about its abilities, that is afraid of tomorrow. For this reason I hope to develop mortgage credits for families and to ensure that the State intervenes to guarantee access to credit for sick people. I propose that those whose salaries are modest be permitted to guarantee their loan through the value of their home. We must reform mortgage credits. If mortgages were easier to obtain, banks would focus less on the ability of the person to pay back his loan and more on the value of the property mortgaged. This would benefit directly all those whose revenues fluctuate, such as temporary employees and a great number of independent workers.

(Brussels Journal, October 8, 2008)

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