French energy minister sacked after budget row
French Ecology and Energy Minister Delphine Batho leaves after a visit of new housing apartment in Alfortville, near Paris, March 21, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Jacky Naegelen
PARIS | Tue Jul 2, 2013 1:43pm EDT
(Reuters) - France's energy and environment minister Delphine Batho was dismissed on Tuesday, the president's office said, after she publicly criticized cuts to her ministry's budget for 2014.
Socialist Party lawmaker Philippe Martin was named as her successor, a switch unlikely to have a significant impact on strategic energy policy as this has long been the preserve of the president.
Batho was summoned to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's office hours after she told RTL radio that she disagreed with a plan to cut the environment ministry's budget by 7 percent next year. The government is battling to reduce public spending by 14 billion euros to trim its deficit.
"It's a bad budget... I prefer to tell the truth," Batho said. "Of course there will be cuts and budget tightening but there are also other ways of proceeding, like environmental taxes or forward-looking investments."
Batho, a vehement opponent of shale gas exploration, had been given the task of piloting a debate to find ways to reduce France's reliance on nuclear energy and boost renewables.
Martin, 59, is a former prefect close to Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius who won a seat in the lower house of parliament in 2002 for the southwestern department of Gers. He is a fierce critic of genetically modified organisms (GMO).
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose, writing by Natalie Huet, editing by Mark Heinrich)
