President Francois Hollande was under mounting pressure to call his squabbling ministers to order Monday as a row over the treatment of France's Roma population rumbled on, reports Fox News.
Against a background of opposition claims the Socialist-Green coalition is in disarray over the issue, Hollande has so far declined to get embroiled in the dispute triggered by Interior Minister Manuel Valls's claim that most Roma in France will never integrate and should be sent back to their countries of origin.
Valls, who has also championed a controversial policy of dismantling illegal Roma encampments and deporting their residents, has been publicly criticised by at least three cabinet colleagues and the row has strained relations between Hollande's Socialist Party and their junior governing partners, the Greens.
The opposition has been quick to pounce on an episode they say has once again exposed Hollande's tendency to dither when confronted with difficult decisions.
"A government where you have some ministers organising attacks on other ministers cannot last," said Francois Bayrou, the leader of the centrist MoDem party. "Coherence has to be re-established and that is the responsibility of the president and the prime minister."
Read more of this AFP report published by Fox News.