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More needs to be done: De Villepin

Vaiju Naravane

French unhappy over unemployment

PARIS: He had given himself 100 days in office to show results, especially over job creation, and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, could now claim some success.

Figures show that unemployment has gone down slightly for the third successive month, though trade unions claim that is because the Government has fudged the statistics.

France has been plagued by sluggish growth, a high national deficit and record unemployment making the French deeply unhappy.

In a press conference at his official residence, Mr. de Villepin eschewed any triumphalism declaring that much more work was needed to put France back on her feet. A confidant of President Jacques Chirac, he is also described by insiders as the President's favourite to run in the 2007 residential race against Mr. Chirac's main rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. de Villepin announced he would be restructuring the unwieldy tax system to make it "the fairest and most competitive in Europe."

He also promised massive investment in low income housing after a series of fires in Paris recently claimed the lives of several poor immigrants living in unsafe buildings.

Mr. de Villepin also pledged to invest more into alternative sources of energy to beat the soaring cost of oil. "Reality must be faced: we have entered the post-petrol era," he said. Promising a second phase of reforms in order to make France more competitive in world markets, he said: "Our model of society answers to the deepest expectations of the French. But in a world which is changing fast, in order to stay ahead in the race it is imperative that we modernise it. For that we need an engine, a project."

He also said an overhaul of the welfare system was needed so that it would no longer be advantageous to stay on the dole.

"I want it to be more profitable and easier to work rather than to live on benefits," he said.

Pledging to keep down public spending to comply with E.U. budget deficit rules this year, Mr. de Villepin nonetheless said an extra euro 10 billion would be released before the end of 2006 for investment in major transport and other infrastructure projects.

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More needs to be done: De Villepin

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