"On Florange I fully assume what was decided. I don't lie to the French," Ayrault, referring to the site of the steelworks in north-eastern France, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. Ayrault has been a whipping boy of the unions and the left-wing of the ruling Socialist Party since announcing a deal with ArcelorMittal on November 30, which left the site in the company's hands in return for guarantees on investment and job security.
"It (nationalisation) would have cost a least 1 billion euros. To invest so much money for a hypothetical result in industrial and employment terms is not the option we retained," Ayrault told the paper.
Workers on the furnaces, which employ under a quarter of the site's 2,800 staff and which have been idle for 18 months, had reacted bitterly to the deal. One union leader called Ayrault a "traitor."
Industrial Recovery Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who led the campaign to nationalise the site until a new investor could take over, threatened to resign. The case has revealed divisions within the Socialists, between a pragmatic centre-left camp around Ayrault and President Francois Hollande and a solidly leftist faction led by anti-globalisation campaigner Montebourg.