France’s Hollande fires Energy Minister over budget cut criticism

PanARMENIAN.Net - French President Francois Hollande fired his energy and environment minister Delphine Batho on Tuesday, July 2 for publicly criticizing cuts to her budget, Reuters said.

Hollande, whose poll ratings are slumping amid spiraling unemployment and moribund growth, appears increasingly determined to assert his authority over the government while pushing through spending cuts to trim the budget deficit.

Batho was summoned to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's office hours after telling RTL radio that she disagreed with a plan to cut the Environment Ministry's budget by 7 percent next year. The government aims to reduce public spending by 14 billion euros overall.

"It's a bad budget ... I prefer to tell the truth," Batho said. "Of course there will be cuts and budget tightening, but there are also other ways of proceeding, like environmental taxes or forward-looking investments."

Hollande called Batho to ask her to take back her comments, but she refused, the president's office said. Ayrault then called her in to tell her she was dismissed.

The move angered the environmentalist Greens party, which has two ministers in the cabinet and fears that the government is losing its focus on environmental policy.