FE Editorial : Say oui, to industry

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The Financial Express: Nov 30 2012, 01:05 IST

Tags: AAA-status | Arcelor | Fe | Editorial

A nation which has just been stripped of its AAA-status, you’d think, would be keen to project a pro-business image. Which is why President Hollande hired French advertising giant Publicis to create a “Say Oui to France” global campaign, to highlight the fact that France is home to 20,000 foreign companies, to drown out the country’s harsh realities—that the economy, which grew just 0.1% over the past four quarters, is on a steady spiral downwards with debt already at 90% of GDP, that Hollande’s slapping a 75% tax rate on high-income earners and doubling of the capital gains tax has got the richest man in France applying for Belgian citizenship, that the increase in the retirement age has been partially rolled back …

Sadly, Hollande’s anti-business credentials may have taken a new turn with the row over ArcelorMittal’s Florange blast furnaces. Hollande, it is true, hasn’t been anywhere as crude as Arcelor’s then chief who described Mittal’s shares as “monkey money”, nor has he endorsed his industry minister Arnaud Montebourg’s line of vowing to expunge Mittal from France for daring to lay off 629 workers at the Florange furnaces. While Hollande has given Mittal various options and his office has said the discussions will continue, FT reports France is firm the furnaces have to be redeveloped or the entire Florange operations will be taken over by the state till a new buyer is found. Mittal wants to close two mothballed blast furnaces at Florange while continuing to operate that part of

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