Eurozone leadership crumbles on 'bad news Monday': BGC

Louise Cooper of BGC Partners explained to CNBC-TV18 that the European markets were bogged down by a number of worries. This includes a French Presidential candidate with strong anti-austerity views who has won the first round of polls and the collapse of the Dutch government over disagreement over observing austerity measures.

Cooper also adds that the Euro is holding up on PMI data that indicated an increase in net positions during the week. Below is an edited transcript of the interview on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: What are the new worries in the European markets? Is it the first round of the French Presidential elections or something else?
A: A number of things. Francois Hollande has come first in the first round of the Presidential elections this weekend. This has caused some nervousness because Hollande's policy is in direct conflict with Angela Merkel's in Germany. So, there are lots of political fears about if Hollande becomes France's next president.
In the Netherlands, the Dutch government is beginning to fall as one of the coalition partners was unhappy with the imposed fiscal austerity. Add to this is the appalling PMI data with fears about the economic future of Europe. So, it's a sort of a 'bad news Monday'. Q: If Francois Hollande were to actually win, do you think it would cause trouble for Europe? He intends to renegotiate the treaty and is not really comfortable with the austerity measures and wants to focus on growth. Do you think a crisis situation would emerge if he were to come to power?
A: It's always difficult to say what will actually be done once somebody takes office. But he has made that such a vocal part of his electioneering that it would be difficult to see him back down on his very, very public position of renegotiating the fiscal compact.
Angela Merkel sees the fiscal compact as one of her big successes. But it's unraveling rapidly and her backing for austerity across Europe is really losing ground. We have already had a government fall over it in the Netherlands this weekend. We had the new Spanish government saying that they were are not going to meet the austerity targets.
And now we have a potential Presidential contender of second biggest eurozone country (France) who says he doesn't like the fiscal compact. So at a time when Europe needs strong political leadership, it’s actually disintegrating. Q: The Euro is holding up at a little off that 1.32 level and is not doing too badly. What's holding it up?
A: The data that came in last week suggested that net short positions on the Euro had actually increased in the week. It's the least ugly baby contest, isn't it? Which is the least ugly baby? Everybody wants to buy the Swiss Franc to safety but the Swiss National Bank is not allowing you to do that.
So where do you put your money? The Deutsche Mark no longer exists, but I can assure you if it did, it would be terribly popular at the moment.