In his interview on Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio, Michael Fuchs, a Deputy leader of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, labelled France as „a problem child in the euro” and added that “the French need to do their homework”.
The Deputy Chairman of Merkel’s party said the French government should scrap its 35-hour workweek, as nationals of Germany spend at work 40 hours weekly, while in Switzerland a workweek lasts for 42 hours.
In addition, Mr Fuchs slated the pension system in France suggesting retiring at the age of 60 is irrational.
He noted that „other countries have done their homework a lot more intensively - for example, Spain and Italy under Monti, but the French believed they could escape this“.
This week the social policy implemented in France was severely criticized by Titan International Inc Chairman Maurice Taylor. Head of the tyre giant wrote a letter to French Minister of Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg who had earlier offered Mr Taylor to keep the Goodyear plant in Amiens going.
The polemical letter from Titan International Inc CEO chiding the government for reluctance to support business was published in the French newspaper Les Echos. Mr Taylor also blasted the influence labour unions hold over the workplace and low labour productivity in France. “The French workforce gets paid high wages, but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three hours," he wrote.
So, the Titan International Inc CEO refused to purchase the Goodyear plant with a rhetorical question: „How stupid do you think we are?” “Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one euro per hour and ship all the tires France needs,” he added.
Mr Montebourg declined to comment on Mr Taylor’s letter saying he did not want “to harm the interests of France”.
