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French prosecutors open inquiry into Macron ally French prosecutors open inquiry into Macron ally
(about 2 hours later)
French prosecutors have launched a preliminary investigation into a property deal involving one of Emmanuel Macron’s ministers. Emmanuel Macron is under growing pressure to ditch a newly appointed minister and key adviser after French prosecutors announced they were launching a preliminary investigation into allegations of favouritism.
On Wednesday Macron defended Richard Ferrand over allegations he favoured his wife in a lucrative deal while he was head of a public health insurance fund. Richard Ferrand, minister of territorial cohesion, and secretary general of the French president’s La Republique en Marche party, has dismissed calls to resign, insisting he has done nothing wrong.
The timing of the announcement by prosecutors in Brest is embarrassing for Macron because the government is due on Thursday to unveil a draft law on cleaning up French politics. The affair is an embarrassment to Macron, who is engaged in a morality campaign to clean up French politics just one week from the first round of vital parliamentary elections.
A pledge to rejuvenate France’s corruption-plagued political class was one of the central planks of the campaign that swept Macron to the presidency on 7 May. Thursday’s inquiry announcement came a week after the prosecutor’s office in Brest, Brittany, declared there was no evidence Ferrand had broken any law and ruled out an inquiry.
Ferrand, one of Macron’s first prominent backers and formerly secretary general of his Republique En Marche (Republic on the Move) party, has denied any wrongdoing. He told France Inter radio on Thursday: “I am an honest man.” In a statement on Thursday, Brest prosecutor Eric Mathais explained he had changed his mind after more allegations appeared in the press.
The satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné reported last week that an insurance fund that Ferrand headed in his native Brittany – where he is an MP – agreed in 2011 to rent a building from his wife and carry out renovations that boosted its value. “The aim of this inquiry is to gather all material tfor a complete analysis of the facts and to look into whether these may constitute a criminal offence or not,” Mathais wrote.
Ferrand, now the minister for territorial cohesion, has dismissed the report as a “welcome present” from the media for the new government. He says his wife made the fund the best offer and he had no say in the matter. Satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchainé reported that Ferrand had rented office space from his partner for a health insurance fund he managed six years ago. She was then able to secure a business loan on the basis of the rental income and renovations carried out by the health fund increased the property’s value, the Canard alleged.
No public money was involved and Ferrand insists there was nothing illegal or unethical in the deal. Ferrand described the row as a “pseudo scandal”.
Macron put financial and ethical probity in public life at the heart of his presidential campaign after scandals hit his rivals François Fillon and Marine Le Pen, candidates for the rightwing Les Republicains and far-right Front National respectively.
A Harris Interactive poll on Wednesday suggested 70% of French people want Ferrand to resign.
Macron has ordered his government to show unity in the run up to vital legislative elections, the first round of which will take place next Sunday. The president needs a clear majority in the Assemblée Nationale to push through his reform programme.
The government is currently drawing up a law aimed at setting down moral and ethical rules for MPs and those in public life.
French prime minister, Edouard Philippe, has defended Ferrand, saying he would stay in his post.
“A minister who is formally charged must resign, there is no ambiguity there,” he added.
The new European affairs minister, Marielle de Sarnez, is also under preliminary investigation after the FN claimed there were irregularities in her employment of European Union parliamentary assistants. De Sarnez has said she is suing her accusers for defamation.
Government spokesman Christophe Castaner said the Ferrand affair came at a “bad time”, but there was no question of the minister resigning.
“One thing is certain; there is nothing illegal here; there is nothing that is not correct morally,” Castaner told Europe 1 radio.