Probe demanded into France Telecom's €68bn debts

France’s ruling centre-right party is to call for an investigation into how France Telecom amassed one of the world’s biggest corporate debts.

The decision was made after the state-owned telecom giant presented a restructuring plan that involves 22,000 job cuts to help reduce the company’s staggering €68bn debt load.

Parliamentary investigation is needed to help draw lessons from France Telecom’s woes and spur better management of state-owned companies, said Jacques Barrot, president of the ruling UMP bloc.

“It’s not about raising questions about individuals, but the system that led to the situation that France Telecom finds itself in,” Barrot told MPs.

The once-healthy state firm, under former chairman Michel Bon, binged on €98bn worth of buyouts since 1998 – much of it as telecom markets were tumbling.

The new company chairman, Thierry Breton, said last week the company faces “an unprecedented financial crisis” – with €48bn in debt coming due over the next three years.

Barrot told MPs “it is now necessary to show that France is on the right track in the management of public companies.”