7 Nov 2012

French funding for Tahiti elicits sharp rhetoric

5:21 pm on 7 November 2012

The release by France of funds for French Polynesia has sparked a mixed reaction, with the opposition To Tatou Aia describing the government as being political impostors.

Paris agreed in recent talks to release 65 million US dollars, which the ruling Tavini Huiraatira Party says is a sign of the French Socialists' vision of France's responsibility towards its overseas territories.

The party says with this money French Polynesia can progress after eight years of instability unleashed by the right-wing French UMP Party and what it calls local rejects.

The opposition To Tatou Aia says the drop feed from France is being presented as the opening of a tap, but it says there will be no economic pick-up this year.

Figures for last year show an unprecedented contraction of the economy by 6.7 percent, which was only worse in Greece and Yemen.