Kouchner, who is a co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an NGO prominent in hotbeds of tension across the world, said he had thought about resigning over the Roma expulsions, but had later decided that "to leave is to desert the battlefield".
Speaking to radio station RTL, he said: "I am not happy with what happened. I have been dealing with Roma for 25 years. I am not happy about this controversy, about this kind of verbal mayonnaise."
Asked if he had informed French President Nicolas Sarkozy of his intention to resign, he said: "If one doesn't speak to the president, to whom do we speak?"
French Prime Minister François Fillon struggled to play down the statements by his minister.
"Not only did Bernard Kouchner not resign, but he made a speech to ambassadors last Friday during which he defended the government's policy and in particular, spoke out against all those who have made use of unbearable wording, comparing the goodwill returns of Roma to the Nazi deportations," Fillon said, speaking to France Inter radio.
Fillon was referring to the annual conference of France's ambassadors abroad, at which Kouchner did indeed express solidarity with Sarkozy's positions (EurActiv 26/08/10).
Nevertheless, Fillon himself indicated in the same interview that he had "differences" with Sarkozy, including in the field of the immigration policy.
"There are differences of course, and there are differences in our characters […] One doesn't need to politicise the immigration issue […] There have been, in my camp, a number of statements over the summer that I didn't accept, because I think one should not unnecessarily overheat such an issue," he said.
According to an analysis by TV channel France 2, Sarkozy made a mistake by announcing last March that he would reshuffle his government in the autumn. Kouchner, Fillon and Defence Minister Hervé Morin, who is making no secret of his plans to run for president in the 2012 elections, no longer feel that they are part of his team, an analyst at the channel with the biggest audience in France explained.
The government reshuffle is expected in November, AFP writes.
Romania reacts
In the meantime, Romanian Interior Minister Vasile Blaga stated that not a single Romanian national repatriated from France last week was the author of any wrongdoing, EurActiv Romania reported.
"Regarding the persons returned to Romania last week […] we made a thorough check and it appears that they are not present in the databases of the French or Romanian police as authors of any kind of wrongdoing," Blaga said, speaking to the press in Salzburg.
Valentin Mocanu, state secretary in the labour ministry responsible for the Roma, said Romania would do everything in its power to protect the rights of its citizens present in other countries.
Speaking in Paris, where he held consultations with the French authorities, Mocanu said his country would "immediately" trigger juridical procedures in the event of complaints concerning infringement of the fundamental rights of its citizens.
