En France, la dégradation est particulièrement douloureuse

In France, the Pain of Rating Downgrade Is Especially Acute

[The New York Times]

Among the European countries that Standard & Poor’s declared less creditworthy on Friday, France stands out among the tarnished.

An S.& P. downgrade provides no truly new information about the euro zone’s debt struggle, now entering its third year. But the move at least symbolically places the crisis squarely on the doorstep of the Continent’s second-biggest economy after Germany — which retains the AAA credit rating of which France can no longer boast.
Keeping that top credit rating had long been a badge of honor for France — and a political point of pride for President Nicolas Sarkozy, who now enters a difficult re-election campaign with a stigma that his opponents quickly moved to exploit.
Lire : nytimes.com