France / Minister Michel Sapin: There is a state but it’s a totally bankrupt state

France’s government was plunged into an embarrassing row yesterday after a minister said the country was ‘totally bankrupt’.

Employment secretary Michel Sapin said cuts were needed to put the damaged economy back on track.

‘There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state,’ he said.

‘That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective.’

Totally bankrupt: Michel Sapin, who is in charge of the employment ministry in Paris, made it clear that his government’s tax-and-spend policies are just not working

In a frantic damage limitation exercise yesterday, colleagues in the Socialist administration said he was only highlighting faults of the previous government of Nicolas Sarkozy. Finance minister Pierre Moscovici said: ‘What he meant was that the fiscal situation was worrying.’

But a poll yesterday by Le Figaro newspaper showed eight out of ten readers agreed that France was indeed bankrupt.

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via France is ‘totally bankrupt’, jobs minister admits as concerns grow over Hollande’s tax-and-spend policies | Mail Online.