In slapping higher taxes on the wealthy and on big companies, Fran?ois Hollande has redeemed pledges to voters who brought him the French presidency. He has made a gesture to France’s innate hostility to le capitalisme sauvage. And he has avoided the accusation that he is backtracking on his commitment to fiscal responsibility. But this balancing act is ultimately not the right solution.

The gap in public finances is simply too big for the sort of sticking plaster applied yesterday. The E7bn of new taxes will only allow the government to meet its pledge this year to bring the budget deficit down to 4.5 per cent of gross domestic product. Far more challenging is how it will address the E33bn shortfall which the national auditor estimates will be necesssary to bridge in order to bring the deficit down to 3 per cent. The chasm in public finances cannot be filled by tax increases alone. Mr Hollande will have to cut politically sensitive but hugely costly areas of public spending such as health, benefits and transfers, and the civil service.

He has taken a few small steps, such as accepting a more realistic target for economic growth. But he should not have limited his room for manoeuvre elsewhere by pledging to keep overall employment in France’s bloated public sector stable. Cutting this wage bill is unavoidable. Now he has no choice but to extend an already controversial wage freeze and deprive civil servants of their treasured promotion system. He must be prepared to take the political heat this will generate.