Three days before round one of a French parliamentary election, President François Hollande’s Socialists have crossed swords over pot- smoking with their most likely coalition partner for the next five years, the Greens party.
The discord, unlikely to unstitch an election pact between the two, surfaced this week when the housing minister Cecile Duflot, head of the Greens party, said she backed the legalisation of cannabis.
Socialist prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, trying to put the matter to rest, said in a television interview on Wednesday that Mr Hollande had during the presidential election campaign opposed legalisation of the drug.
“The answer is clear and it’s No,” he told TV channel TF1.
Ms Duflot would have to quit her post as Greens party chief and with it the pro-cannabis line, if the left won the parliamentary contest taking place in two rounds on June 10th and 17th, he said. – (Reuters)