In France, Hollande Offers Plan to Revive Economy PARIS - François Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate leading in the polls for the French presidency, appeared Thursday to try to address complaints that he had been too vague about his plans for France and its slowing economy, issuing a package of 60 measures that would increase taxes and government spending but aim to balance the budget by 2017. Mr. Hollande, 57, promised to reverse the legacy of President Nicolas Sarkozy by raising taxes for corporations, banks and the relatively wealthy, creating 60,000 teaching jobs and bringing the retirement age back down to 60, from 62. He also promised to create 150,000 subsidized jobs in areas of high unemployment, putting his emphasis on better opportunities for the young, and said he wanted to promote more industry in France by creating a kind of public investment bank. "I only make promises that I will be able to keep," he said. Everything I say will be done. The 60 measures, announced at a news conference at a union hall and published in a slick paperback, seemed devised to try to bridge the political gap between Socialist promises and the need to cut France's large budget deficit to satisfy the markets. He forecast a lower growth rate for the French economy this year than Mr. Sarkozy, but endorsed Mr. Sarkozy's promise to reduce the annual budget deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by the end of 2013 and to balance the budget by 2017. The deficit in 2011 was 5.4 percent of gross domestic product. Although Mr. Hollande said he would spend more than Mr. Sarkozy on social programs, he would also raise more money through taxes. Over a five-year term, Mr. Hollande said, he wants to increase spending gradually by up to 20 billion euros (about $26 billion) and government income - taxes - by up to 29 billion euros (about $38 billion). Mr. Hollande said he would raise the income tax bracket for those making more than 150,000 euros a year (about $197,000) to 45 percent from 40 percent, cap tax deductions for individuals at 10,000 euros a year (about $13,000), increase taxes on bank profits and create a financial-transaction tax - the last also a promise of Mr. Sarkozy. The head of Mr. Sarkozy's center-right political party, Jean-François Copé, said Mr. Hollande's promises were a "fiscal clobbering of the middle class." A government spokeswoman, Valérie Pécresse, who is also the budget minister, accused Mr. Hollande of irresponsibility with public finances and said his program would put France further into debt. "This is a project that threatens the social model, France's credibility and the French people," Mr. Pécresse said. There would then be no other solution than raising taxes on the middle class. Marine Le Pen, the candidate for the far-right National Front, called Mr. Hollande's program a "sanitized" version of "the model that is at the origin of the crisis." The centrist candidate François Bayrou said, "We will never return to a balanced budget with this program," calling it "not truthful." Mr. Hollande is regarded with skepticism by the leftist core of his party. But the Socialists are also hungry for the presidency, having lost every presidential election since President François Mitterrand left office in 1995. On Thursday Mr. Hollande referred to President Obama's State of the Union address, saying, "Obama said he wants the secretary of a billionaire to not have to pay more than the billionaire" in taxes. I want the same thing. Mr. Hollande also promised to grant marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples and reduce France's reliance on nuclear power to 50 percent by 2025 from the current 75 percent or so. He repeated his pledge to pull French troops out of Afghanistan, which would toss aside France's promise in NATO not to withdraw before the end of 2014. Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, is due in Paris on Friday for talks with Mr. Sarkozy, who is examining whether to accelerate the pace of French withdrawal after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French soldiers and wounded 15 last week. Mr. Hollande is several percentage points ahead of Mr. Sarkozy in opinion polls for the first round of presidential voting on April 22. Ms. Le Pen is running a close third to Mr. Sarkozy, making the president's party anxious that he might not make it into the second round. Mr. Bayrou is getting more than 10 percent of the vote in the polls, making the first round a four-person race. Mr. Sarkozy has not yet declared his candidacy, although he will appear on prime-time television Sunday night for an interview.