Christine Lagarde, the French economy minister, on Wednesday confirmed she was summoning Didier Lombard, the chairman of France Telecom, to explain how he intended to revive confidence inside his group after another employee committed suicide earlier this week – the 24th in the past 18 months.

She also added she wanted to know if he would have the “determination and energy” to implement the measures the company recently announced to tackle its internal crisis – pretty sharp words for the normally mild-mannered Mrs Lagarde.