Hollande stonewalls on private life to make reform pitch<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/hollande-bids-deflect-glare-private-life-reforms-092834108--business.html"><img src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/7D_2u7MBw3B4GDBTzz5ETQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-01-14T201345Z_2_CBREA0D1ID500_RTROPTP_2_FRANCE-HOLLANDE.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="French President Hollande answers a question during a news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris" align="left" title="French President Hollande answers a question during a news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris" border="0" /></a>By Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande brushed away questions about an alleged affair with an actress on Tuesday and unveiled moves to ease company taxes, cut labor charges and trim France's high public spending to revive a stagnant economy. He called for France and Germany to harmonize corporate taxation and create a joint venture to manage the transition to renewable energy, modeled on European plane giant Airbus. With over 500 journalists packed into the Elysee Palace ballroom for a New Year news conference, the Socialist leader, deeply unpopular with voters, made no mention of controversy about his private life in a 30-minute introductory speech and defiantly stonewalled on the subject for the next two hours. His official partner, Valerie Trierweiler, is in hospital recovering from shock after a celebrity magazine published pictures of what it said was Hollande wearing a motorcycle helmet visiting actress Julie Gayet for nocturnal trysts.</p><br clear="all"/>
Source: Hollande stonewalls on private life to make reform pitch (http://news.yahoo.com/hollande-bids-deflect-glare-private-life-reforms-092834108--business.html)