Y2K Deprives French Ministers of New Year Joy

Updated 10:37 AM ET December 2, 1999

PARIS (Reuters) - While Paris parties, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and France's other ministers will have to ring in the New Year from behind their desks.

Jospin has put all ministers on duty in case of "Millennium Bug" mishaps and several of his leading cabinet members said on Thursday they would spend the festive evening in their offices.

The prime minister plans to keep an eye on things from his Matignon Palace office while the hub of the Y2K vigil will be the finance and industry ministry, where work will start well before midnight.

"The turnover starts seven hours earlier in New Zealand and we'll have to follow any surprises country by country," Finance Minister Christian Sautter said.

His super-ministry, a massive modern building along the Seine River which oversees finance, economy, industry and consumer affairs, will coordinate France's passage to the new year under the watching eyes of journalists at a special press center opened just for the event.

Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, whose security forces will oversee crowd surveillance and violence control on December 31, also said he would be at work.

Jean-Claude Gayssot, whose transport ministry has to make sure that planes, boats and trains beat the millennium bug, will pass up on partying that night too.

"I'll be there, that's sure," he said. "The others have more of a chance of celebrating the New Year with their families."

The run-up to the New Year offers little respite either for the conscientious Jospin and his Socialist-led coalition team.

The regular cabinet meeting has been cancelled the Wednesday before Christmas, but confirmed for December 29 and there will also be a wider meeting of government members the same day.

An opinion poll published in France last week revealed that only a fifth of the population expected a glitch-free New Year.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 02, 1999

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His super-ministry, a massive modern building along the Seine River which oversees finance, economy, industry and consumer affairs, will coordinate France's passage to the new year under the watching eyes of journalists at a special press center opened just for the event.

-- (New@News.Now), December 02, 1999.