France's economy minister, whose criticism of the country's economic policies prompted the prime minister to tender the government's resignation, said Monday he would not figure in the reshuffled cabinet.
Arnaud Montebourg told reporters: "I believed it necessary to take back my freedom in the same way he (Prime Minister Manuel Valls) accepted to give it to me."
"What will I do with this new freedom? ... I will go back and work with the French, for them. I will continue to defend ... What I think is right for France," he added.
He took aim at what he called the "financial absurdity" of austerity policies, which he said had "extended" France's economic crisis.
"The policies of cutting deficits end up not reducing deficits and for this reason are a financial absurdity because, by restricting growth, they prevent their own goals from being achieved," he said.
"There is another path for Europe and for France," he said.
Similar criticism over the weekend prompted Valls to tender the government's resignation to President Francois Hollande, who asked him to form a new government by tomorrow.
Montebourg, who is seen as being on the left-wing of the ruling Socialists, also said that Education Minister Benoit Hamon and Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti had made the same choice.
Filippetti wrote to Hollande earlier today to say she did not want a post in the new cabinet.
