Paris - A maverick French Minister backed off controversial remarks yesterday after an uproar over his assertion that Germany had not yet recovered from its Nazi past and wanted to impose its system on others. Professing a personal fondness for Germany, the Interior Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Chev enement, said his comments were "too compact for television".
France's Greens, junior partners in Mr Lionel Jospin's coalition, demanded an explanation while the opposition Gaullist RPR party accused Mr Chevenement of casting doubt on 40 years of French-German reconciliation.