Backlash over Mittal's furnace plans Senior French politicians may have been distancing themselves from some of the more inflammatory comments made this week by Arnaud Montebourg, the leftwing industry minister, who accused Lakshmi Mittal's company ArcelorMittal of engaging in "blackmail" and "lies" and said it should quit France. But there is support across the political spectrum for Mr Montebourg's threat to nationalise, albeit temporarily, the site in the industrially blighted Lorraine region that houses the two blast furnaces the Indian steel magnate plans to close. The backlash has come as Mr Mittal met President François Hollande in Paris over the dispute, with the French leader also putting nationalisation of the Florange site on the table. The nationalisation threat, backed by senior figures from the centre-right UMP and France's two main centrist parties, highlights the depth of hostility over ArcelorMittal's plans for the Florange site and reopens old wounds from Mittal Steel's hostile €26.9bn takeover of Luxembourg-based Arcelor in 2006. A senior Paris official said Mr Montebourg's statements were "stupid" and "very detrimental" to the cause of the French government. But a lot of what he said is consistent with our position. Pierre Moscovici, the more moderate finance minister, said: "It is not a question of returning to the old logic of massive, general and permanent nationalisation. What is envisaged is a temporary operation. It is an important issue of ensuring that commitments made are respected. We are determined that French industry is protected and defended. Ministers are furious at Mr Mittal over what they claim are unkept promises about the future of Florange made during the 2006 takeover and again in 2009. "We cannot accept after allowing such a hostile takeover to have someone not respect the deal," the official said. They are in breach of their agreements. It is not a good situation. They should not treat us as pygmies. He also backed Mr Montebourg's claim that ArcelorMittal owed a "huge" amount of unpaid taxes in France, a claim that is vigorously disputed by the company. ArcelorMittal insists it made no guarantee over jobs at Florange in 2006, and said a promise to protect the site in 2009 was made on the proviso that economic conditions remained favourable. Mr Mittal wants to close the two blast furnaces at Florange but keep the rest of the site. The French government has made the nationalisation threat because it wants him to put the entire site up for sale, arguing that it has buyers lined up who will keep the whole facility operational. The company employs 20,000 workers across France and wants to make 629 redundant at Florange. Henri Guaino, a senior adviser in the former right-of-centre government of Nicolas Sarkozy, weighed into the dispute on Tuesday, telling Les Echos newspaper that "one could ask the question of whether [France] was right to trust Mittal Steel" when it approved the hostile takeover in 2006. Mr Sarkozy was furious when Mr Mittal closed the Gandrange steel site close to Florange in 2009, with the loss of 600 positions, despite his broader commitments to safeguarding jobs after buying Arcelor. François Bayrou, head of the centrist MoDem party, and Jean-Louis Borloo, head of the centrist UDI, both backed Mr Montebourg's nationalisation threat. Some people close to the Mittals have voiced concerns about the personal nature of the attacks on the company, which they believe have been tailored to tap into the hostility among the French public towards the wealthy. Mr Mittal is one of the world's richest men. Karine Berger, an influential lawmaker in Mr Hollande's Socialist Party, said: "It would have been better to have sold Arcelor to Europeans."