French Prime Minister Francois Fillon pledged on Saturday to press ahead with economic reforms, telling party workers there was no alternative for tackling the country's under-performing economy.
"Reforms are not the work of one clan or party but they result from a diagnosis of our country's situation which leaves little room for debate," Fillon said in a speech to ruling Gaullist UMP party activists in eastern France.
"I tell you that (President) Nicolas Sarkozy and I will reform, reform and reform again," he said. Fillon was speaking three days after unveiling a 2008 budget based on tax breaks and ambitious economic growth assumptions, but few spending cuts.
The discussion over the budget has stirred divisions between President Nicolas Sarkozy's office and Fillon over how to convince the public of the need for potentially painful reform. France has told the European Commission it will balance the budget in 2012, two years later than originally promised. The government foresees a deficit of 41.7 billion euros, or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product, a modest improvement from the expected shortfall of 2.4 percent of GDP this year.
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