France freezes presidential salary over deficit

PanARMENIAN.Net - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that the salaries of President Nicolas Sarkozy and his ministers would be frozen as part of austerity measures, calling on business leaders to do the same.

"The salaries of members of the government and the president will be frozen until a return to a strict balancing of public finances," Fillon told journalists as he announced measures to eliminate France's deficit by 2016.

"I call on political leaders and heads of big companies, particularly businesses in the CAC 40, to do exactly the same thing," Fillon said, referring to the Paris stock exchange's blue chip share index.

"I call on everyone to show great responsibility," Fillon said, calling pay rises for some bosses "frankly indecent". Following his election, Sarkozy in 2007 raised his own salary 170 per cent from around 7,000 euros a month to around 19,000 euros, prompting a storm of criticism, AFP reported.