French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday he expressed opposition to the planned sale of a French Airbus factory once proposals to sell similar plants in Germany had collapsed.
Airbus last month called off plans to sell two French plants to Toulouse-based Latecoere shortly after talks to sell three plants in Germany to MT Aerospace collapsed over financing problems, saying the two events were unrelated.
"When I saw that the German factories were not being sold, for reasons of their own, I indicated I was against the closure of Meaulte," Sarkozy said in a television interview, apparently referring to plans to move the northern French factory outside the ownership of Airbus.
Airbus has consistently denied that any of its decisions over factory sales resulted from political pressure or that the two sets of talks were linked. It has said the factories would have remained open as it races to meet record orders.
The planemaker wants to sell some factories to help cut its overhead costs and bring in investment needed to pay for advanced composite materials to build its next jet, the A350.
Sarkozy played down recent tensions between French and German workers at the planemaker's assembly plant in Toulouse in Southwest France, saying national rivalries in the company have softened since its management structure was simplified.
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a deal in July last year to abolish a system in which top management posts were split and shared between French and German executives.
The system was blamed for constant bickering that caused Airbus to fail to spot problems that led to the A380 superjumbo being delayed for two years.
Airbus is managed by Tom Enders of Germany and parent EADS by a Frenchman, Louis Gallois.
Toulouse union leaders have accused Enders of placing the jetmaker under German control.
"If you want to do something between France and Germany, you can't have all the posts going to the French," Sarkozy said.
Airbus has brought 2,500 German workers to Toulouse to sort out the problems with wiring installation, using technical manuals that only exist in German. Unions say French workers are angry because they regard their German counterparts as overpaid with too little to do. EADS denied that last week.
The French government owns 15 percent of EADS with 10 percent held by private French media group Lagardere and 22.5 percent held by German carmaker Daimler.
