graphic
News > International
France finance chief exits
March 27, 2000: 8:16 a.m. ET

Sautter, irked by unions, heads slate of departures at top of Jospin team
graphic
graphic graphic
graphic
LONDON (CNNfn) - French Finance Minster Christian Sautter resigned Monday, after union protests led to the collapse of his planned tax reform, sparking an array of departures in the first broad shake-up of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's three-year-old administration.
    The government said Laurent Fabius, who served as prime minister under President Francois Mitterrand in the mid-1980s, would take over from Sautter. graphic
    The resignation, which was expected, comes just five months after Sautter succeeded Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down amid a suspected job scam. In a statement, Sautter said he tendered his resignation to Jospin a week ago.
    Culture Minister Catherine Trautmann, Education Minister Claude Allegre and Civil Service Minister Emile Zuccarelli also resigned Monday.
    The return of 53-year-old Fabius marks his political comeback. Currently serving in the largely ceremonial post of speaker of the National Assembly, Fabius was recently cleared of charges that linked him to a long-running scandal over AIDS-tainted blood.
    Sautter said he took office with a simple goal: to reinvigorate the public service sector. A keystone of his plan was a broad simplification of the tax code, by which all fiscal controls would be placed under a single government department - a practice already commonplace elsewhere in Europe, he said.
    "I underestimated the conservativeness of union organizations," Sautter said in his statement. Back to top





graphic

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.