AFP/Paris

Hollande stonewalled on questions about his personal life at a high-profile press conference on Tuesday, batting aside queries about revelations of an affair with actress Julie Gayet.

The scandal showed no signs abating however, with the government forced to respond to reports it had blocked Gayet’s appointment to a cultural jury.

The culture ministry said she had been put forward as a jury member for the Villa Medici French artistic academy in Rome but that “the minister decided not to nominate her. The order has not been signed.”

Government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem played down the “media uproar” and dismissed accusations of a possible conflict of interest, saying Gayet had been part of a “perfectly innocuous procedure” and was a legitimate candidate.

During his press conference on Tuesday Hollande focused on reviving France’s beleaguered economy, laying out a “social democratic” vision at odds with election promises to boost spending and crack down on the rich.

Insisting that a return to economic growth was essential to France “retaining its influence”, Hollande announced plans for 50bn euros ($68bn) in spending cuts between 2015 and 2017 and a 30bn-euro reduction in corporate payroll charges.

“It was a move in the right direction. There is a growing awareness of the reality in France,” the head of the MEDEF employers’ union, Pierre Gattaz, told journalists.

In Germany, where there has been concern about the pace of reforms in France, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier hailed Hollande’s move.

“What the French president presented yesterday is, firstly, courageous,” Steinmeier said.

European Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said it was also “very happy” to see steps “in the right direction” and that Hollande’s plans are “in line with recommendations we made last year”.

Hollande, whose popularity has plummeted to record lows, is under intense pressure to revitalise the French economy and reduce an unemployment rate that is at a 15-year high.

Citing Nordic countries as a model, he said his plans would allow France to boost growth while maintaining its much-cherished welfare state.

But far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon slammed Hollande’s plans as “the most violent shift to the right” in decades.

“It’s an enormous deception, we have never seen anything like it,” Melenchon told RTL radio. “Hollande has adopted all the vocabulary of the right, the entire neo-liberal point of view.”

Hollande also promised to reduce France’s notorious red tape and appeared to be trying to repair his anti-business reputation, though he did say companies would be required to increase employment in exchange for liberalisation.

In a rare show of positive coverage for Hollande, French newspapers were brimming with praise after his press conference.

Leftwing newspaper Liberation said Hollande was a man “set free” to show his true social-democratic colours, while centrist Le Parisien said: “In both form and substance, something changed yesterday at the Elysee.”

Even rightwing newspaper Le Figaro said Hollande had made the right noises, but it warned that “words will not be enough”.