PARIS, November 8 (AFP): Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that the salaries of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his ministers would be frozen as part of austerity measures, calling on business leaders to do the same. “The salaries of members of the government and the president will be frozen until a return to a strict balancing of public finances,” Fillon said as he announced measures to eliminate France’s deficit by 2016. Following his election, Sarkozy in 2007 raised his own salary by 170% from around $9641 a month to around $26169 prompting a storm of criticism.
