French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Sunday slapped down rebels of his ruling Socialist party, branding their calls to support the low paid instead of reducing tax for business irresponsible and saying a change of course was out of the question. The French government wants to cut the deficit and reduce the tax burden on companies by making 50 billion euros ($67 billion) of savings on public sector costs.
"Yes the policy that the President of the Republic has put in place will take time to produce results," he said in an newspaper interview after last week's news that economic growth in France was zero for the second quarter in a row.
"But a change is out of the question," he told the Journal de Dimanche.
Valls criticised "those on the left who have made irresponsible propositions" and said the policy of reducing the tax burden on companies and paying for it with public sector cost savings was going to work.
"The responsibility pact and its 41 billion (euros) worth of cuts in employer costs are going to take full effect now," he said.
"If we do not help businesses to be competitive the country will not recover", he said, repeating his recent mantra about "telling the truth" to the people of a country "living beyond its means". Valls' interview coincided with a JDD-Ifop opinion poll showing more than eight out of 10 French voters had no confidence in a government that is presiding over record unemployment as well as stalled growth.