PARIS (Reuters) – The number of people in France backing a referendum on the country’s proposed privatisation of airports group ADP <ADP.PA> – which has been opposed by some opposition politicians and trade unions – has gone up, said the country’s constitutional council.
The French Constitutional Council said on Tuesday that the number of people who had signed online to back the referendum now stood at 615,000, up from 480,300 before.
The French government plans to sell all or part of its 50.6 percent stake in ADP, worth around 7.9 billion euros (7.23 billion pounds), as part of a drive to divest some state holdings to finance a 10 billion euros innovation fund.
However, the move has faced criticism by diverse opponents who are demanding a referendum and have accused President Emmanuel Macron’s government of “flogging the family silver”.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Yann Le Guernigou; Editing by Leigh Thomas)
