France Labour minister to resign, return as mayor

France’s Labour minister, Francois Rebsamen, announced this week that he will be resigning from the government next week to take on the full-time post of mayor of Dijon.

Rebsamen, who has been in the post for 16 months, leaves behind him a mixed record. “I never dreamed of combining the jobs of labour minister and mayor of Dijon...” Francois Rebsamen told French daily Le Parisien on Monday.

“I know very well that one cannot combine the two and I never envisaged that,” he added.
Rebsamen's departure from the government is in fact motivated by tough new rules-imposed by President François Hollande- which forbids French politicians to hold local and national offices simultaneously.

Yet, deVere Group understands that the move was also triggered by the death on July 27th of Dijon's former mayor Alain Millot. “I promised Millot that I would return to Dijon if one day he was no longer there,” Rebsamen explained.

The Labour minister was mayor of the French eastern town in Burgundy from 2001 to 2014, when he then joined the government. Rebsamen has said he will hand in his resignation on August 19th, after the next cabinet meeting.

Reacting to news of his resignation, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said it was expected given the “relationship of trust and love” Rebsamen shares with the people of Dijon. Valls nonetheless thanked him for his contribution towards tackling high unemployment.

Dijon is one of the more popular French towns for UK expatriates. deVere France offers a wide array of financial services for expats such as retirement planning, private pensions and QROPS.

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