Left-Wing Revolt Plunges Hollande Into Crisis

At Telegraph UK:

The French president is forced to order a reshuffle after two dissident cabinet ministers launch an open rebellion against his economic policy.

François Hollande was forced to order his second reshuffle in less than five months today after a revolt within the cabinet threatened to cripple his presidency.

The Left wing of France’s ruling Socialist Party is furious over Mr Hollande’s shift to more centrist economic policies with the introduction of tax and spending cuts aimed at reducing the country’s huge budget deficit.

The outgoing government, headed by the reformist prime minister, Manuel Valls, was appointed in March with the aim of bringing an end to infighting and the cabinet’s apparent lack of direction.

However, it was plunged into crisis over the weekend by Left-wingers led by Arnaud Montebourg, the flamboyant economy minister.

He defied Mr Hollande’s authority by publicly urging him to discard austerity and break with what he described as deficit-cutting measures imposed on the eurozone by “the most extreme orthodoxy of the German Right”.

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