Not easy to tell the truth to the French

The presidential campaign in France has shown that telling the truth to the French , i.e. the extent of the efforts needed to restore the economy and improve purchasing power, is very difficult. The candidates should have had the courage to say in particular that: Raising the retirement age is necessary to free up fiscal space that will allow for useful public spending without a major tax increase; Across-the-board wage increases are not possible until an improvement in skills leads to a n upswing in productivity gains and an improvement in the quality of jobs; It is by increasing the employment rate, and no longer by redistributive taxation, that inequality can be reduced and public finances also improved; The stabilisation of housing prices cannot come from artificial measures (freezing of real estate prices and rents), but from additional construction; The energy transition will give rise to a lasting and sharp rise in energy and car prices.