Mr Lassalle disbelieved them, arguing that it was a prelude to closure, and began his fast.

ECONOMIST: A pre-emptive strike by a politician from the Pyrenees

The company's French plant employs 150 people in the Aspe Valley, near the Franco-Spanish border, home to some 3, 000 inhabitants and birthplace of Mr Lassalle.

ECONOMIST: A pre-emptive strike by a politician from the Pyrenees

Mr Lassalle began his fast in March, sitting almost daily on a sofa in an ornate room of the National Assembly in Paris, to protest against what he considered to be a relocation plan by Toyal, a Japanese-owned manufacturer of aluminium pigment.

ECONOMIST: A pre-emptive strike by a politician from the Pyrenees

Lassalle and Chartogne Taillet.

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As Mr Lassalle was hospitalised in an emergency, Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, signed an agreement with Toyal: the Japanese firm would expand within Mr Lassalle's Aspe Valley after all, and the French government vowed to compensate it for any extra costs that might be involved in abandoning the site at Lacq.

ECONOMIST: A pre-emptive strike by a politician from the Pyrenees