German advances amongst disastrous drop in French car sales

The middle of the French Presidential election campaign could perhaps not prove a worse moment for the incumbent's policy of complete national convergence with Germany to be greeted by the following depression style statistics:

A total of 507,089 vehicles were sold in the first quarter of 2012, down from 647,454 in the same period a year earlier.
French car manufacturers PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault, which account for over half of the market, each saw their sales plunge by 30 percent.....

 Top-end manufacturers BMW and Mercedes were unaffected, posting sales increases of 8.4 percent and 24.2 percent.