THE FORMER director general of the World Trade Organisation has offered a radical solution to rising unemployment in France.

Pascal Lamy argued that France needed a more “flexible” job market, and suggested some short-term positions could “pay below the minimum wage”.

“A small job is better than no job,” he said on the Questions Info show on LCP.

“I would not have said this 10 or 20 years ago, but with this level of unemployment…”

He said that the French, “must accept from time to time to cross the symbolic spaces of this type.”

He also predicted that the tax cuts promised to households by President Hollande on Monday would add €10bn to the €50bn public spending cuts under the “Responsibility Pact”.

Photo: US Mission Geneva