ArcelorMittal plant under nationalisation threat
Tycoon Lakshmi Mittal told the government could take over the ArcelorMittal plant in Lorraine to ensure its continued operations
French President Francois Hollande is threatening to nationalise a plant owned by steelmaker ArcelorMittal in an increasingly heated dispute in which ministers say the multinational is no longer welcome in the country.
Moments before talks with tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Hollande said that nationalising ArcelorMittal's plant in northeastern France remained on the table.
"The nationalisation is part of the subjects of the discussion," Hollande said. "I will meet in a few minutes with Mr Mittal to see what answer he can give us in respect to this requirement for us to keep the site as it is today."
The warning came as 40 legislators from Hollande's Socialist party said they were in favour of temporarily nationalising ArcelorMittal's plant in Florange.
"Mittal does not respect our country," a joint statement by the parliamentarians said, adding that his interests "were clearly not that of France, of its industrial fabric and its workers".
Mittal, who ranks 21st on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, is locked in a battle with France over the future of the Florange site in the heartland of the French steel industry in the eastern Lorraine region.
Hollande's government has made a priority of protecting jobs while reviving the economy.