Maurice Taylor made the claims in a letter to France's minister for industrial recovery, Arnaud Montebourg.

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France's minister for industrial recovery, Arnaud Montebourg, accused the steelmaker on Monday of "lying" and "disrespecting" the country.

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Arnaud Montebourg, a Socialist deputy, accused the rock star of blackmail and demanded repayment of any local subsidies received on tour.

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"We no longer want Arcelor Mittal in France because they didn't respect France, " Arnaud Montebourg told French business daily Les Echos.

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The real revelation of the primary has been the energetic clarity of two younger, less-known candidates: Arnaud Montebourg (aged 48) and Manuel Valls (49).

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But other motions are being prepared, for instance by Arnaud Montebourg and Vincent Peillon, two young radicals, as well as by Henri Emmanuelli, a left-wing firebrand.

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Taylor, who is nicknamed "The Grizz", wrote the no-holds-barred letter to French Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg to explain why his company wouldn't buy part of an ailing Goodyear factory in Amiens.

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His pledge to save industry, by giving Arnaud Montebourg, an anti-globalisation politician, the job of preventing closures, is looking empty as manufacturers line up to close factories and slam high labour costs.

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Meanwhile, a maverick Socialist member of parliament, Arnaud Montebourg, is gathering his colleagues' signatures in a surely futile, but nonetheless headline-grabbing attempt to change the constitution so that a sitting president can be made to answer questions from the magistrates.

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