France awaits new govt after shock resignation
France's prime minister was set to appoint a new cabinet yesterday after tendering his government's resignation amid a row over economic policy, plunging the country into a fresh political crisis.
As desperately unpopular President Francois Hollande battles to overcome splits in his ruling Socialists and revive the stagnant French economy, Manuel Valls was expected to announce the make-up of his team in the afternoon.
The shock resignation on Monday was seen as a bid to restore order after a weekend of sniping from economy minister Arnaud Montebourg who attacked France's economic direction and the country's main European ally Germany.
Montebourg, a left-wing firebrand who is no stranger to controversy, made it clear he would not be part of the new team and launched a hefty broadside at the policies of austerity he said had catapulted France and Europe into the worst economic crisis since the 1929 Depression.
Education minister Benoit Hamon and culture minister Aurelie Filippetti later said they would join him in self-imposed exile from the next government.
Top French daily Le Monde described the reshuffle as "the last chance for the president to save his five-year term" as Hollande faces record-low unpopularity at 17 percent and record-high unemployment.
The reshuffle was also a desperate bid to quell unseemly infighting in his ruling Socialists between left-leaning members like Montebourg and those, like Valls, who tend more to the centre.
The departing Montebourg lashed out at the austerity policies implemented by the Valls government, saying they were only prolonging and worsening a "serious, destructive and long" crisis in Europe.
"For two years, I fought tirelessly to convince, I wrote notes and letters to the head of the executive and made private and public declarations to attempt to convince and implore the president to refuse excessive measures for our country that risked damaging and sinking our economy," he said.
Acknowledging that he had failed to convince Hollande or the prime minister, he said: "I believed it necessary to take back my freedom in the same way he (Valls) accepted to give it to me."
Montebourg, who is 51, is well known for loose cannon comments, having made headlines in the past for his outspoken criticism of Germany, which he has blamed for factory closures in France.
He was promoted to his current position in April in a government shake-up after the Socialist party suffered a drubbing at local elections, and has had to cosy up to Finance Minister Michel Sapin who supports the very austerity measures that he disagrees with.
As industrial renewal minister before his promotion, he had also raised eyebrows by dubbing the head of tyre giant Titan an "extremist" after the CEO criticised the French workforce as lazy.
He also became embroiled in a very public fight with steelmaker ArcelorMittal over the closure of a plant.
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