France’s Third Downgrade in a Year Is a Call to Step Up, Lescure Says

France can’t afford to ignore the third credit-rating reduction in less than a year, according to French Finance Minister Roland Lescure.

“Three agencies have downgraded us and we can’t ignore this cloud,” he told Franceinfo on Saturday, speaking just hours after S&P lowered his country’s credit rating in an unscheduled move. “Fundamentally it’s an additional cloud to a weather forecast that was already pretty gray. It’s a call for lucidity and responsibility,” he said adding that this is “a call to be serious.”