Cantona bank crash plea attacked

ERIC Cantona has been told by finance minister Christine Lagarde to stick to football and leave economics alone, after he called on people to withdraw their money from the banks “to collapse the system”.

The former France and Manchester United star says in a video on YouTube that people could lead their own “no weapons, no blood” revolution if they took all their money out and caused a run on the banks.

His appeal has been taken up by a French protest group Stop Banque, which has called on a mass withdrawal on December 7. So far it has drawn nearly 29,000 supporters to its FaceBook page with appeals in seven languages.

It hopes to put the spotlight on how banks use people’s deposits to create “money” that doesn’t exist that they then exploit through the likes of hedge funds, leading to the past financial crisis.

Mme Lagarde has hit back saying: "There are some who play football magnificently, and I would not dare try. It's best for everyone to stick to their own speciality."

Footballer turned actor Cantona, who has a reputation for direct action since his kung-fu kick attack on a fan in the UK, originally made his comments in an filmed interview with Nantes newspaper Presse Océan.

He spoke about the protests over the pension changes, saying: “What does it mean to be on the streets? That's not the way any more.

“The revolution is really easy these days. The system is built on the power of the banks. So it must be destroyed through the banks.

"The three million people with their placards on the streets, they go to the bank and they withdraw their money and the banks collapse. Three million, 10 million and the banks collapse and there is no real threat. A real revolution!”

Mme Lagarde said in an interview with Libération that the state’s support for the banks during the financial crisis was not done for free. “We loaned money to the banks and the French state – the people – have received €2.4 billion in interest in return.

“This image of bankers soaking up public money is false. We have a solid banking system and now much more regulated than before the crash. There’s no reason to have this defiance towards them.”

Far-left leader of the New Anticapitalist Party Olivier Besancenot said the thought of people attacking the financial system as a whole was “seductive”, because the banks had been the big winners after a financial crisis that they themselves had created.

Photo: Georges Biard