Mocking the French Government for asking steel giant ArcelorMittal to leave France, London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is on a visit here, on Tuesday, said “sans-culottes (working class militants) “appear to have captured” Paris.
Describing a 115-metre ArcelorMittal steel tower, Orbit, at the Olympics Park in London as fusion of friendship between India and the U.K., Mr. Johnson said, “I say this on a day when I picked up a newspaper and I see sans-culottes appear to have captured the Government of Paris and a French Minister has been so eccentric as to call for a massive investor to depart.’’ Sans-culottes were the radical left-wing urban working class who dominated France during the French Revolution of 1789. The London Mayor was speaking to Indian industry leaders at a FICCI meeting here seeking investment for the world’s leading financial centre.
French Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg had reportedly told a French daily, “We do not want ArcelorMittal in France any longer because they do not respect France.”
