Ms Filippetti said a smartphone tax would be at a "very low level".

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Yet Aurelie Filippetti, an adviser to Hollande, said Sunday there would only be a single debate on May 2.

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Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti said she owned a 70-square-metre (750-square-foot) flat in Paris, adding more light-heartedly that she also possessed a David Beckham T-shirt.

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"The people ... don't trust Nicolas Sarkozy any more, " Filippetti said.

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Yet Filippetti said that Le Pen's strong showing suggested that Sarkozy couldn't get those more philosophically aligned with his views to support him, despite his "aggressive" efforts.

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French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favours the idea.

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Even so, no-one seems to think it strange that the country's minister of culture, Aurelie Filippetti, should be having meetings with management and union representatives in an effort to keep the firm alive.

BBC: French mourn Virgin's 'funeral march'

Without naming Apple or Amazon, Miss Filippetti complained in a radio interview about the emergence of big websites that "completely escape any kind of fair competition, because they don't pay the same taxes as the others, being based elsewhere than in France".

BBC: French mourn Virgin's 'funeral march'