Key Macron ally quits French government
PARIS: French Justice Minister Francois Bayrou, a key ally of President Emmanuel Macron, told AFP yesterday he was quitting the government as his party battles a funding scandal.
The move means Macron, who has pledged to clean up French politics after a series of scandals, loses a centrist partner as he seeks to pull together a government to push forward his ambitious probusiness reform agenda.
Bayrou’s small centrist MoDem party was in an alliance with Macron’s 14-month- old Republic on the Move (REM) movement, and Bayrou was one of three MoDem ministers in the cabinet named by the president last month.
The trio of MoDem ministers are now all set to leave.
Macron hopes to complete a partial reshuffle of his monthold government later Wednesday following a parliamentary election at the weekend that gave him and MoDem a commanding majority.
But with Macron’s REM party alone winning 308 seats in the 577seat National Assembly, it does not need the support of MoDem, which took 42 seats, to push legislation through parliament.
“I have taken a decision not to be part of the next government,” Bayrou said, adding that he would hold a press conference at 5pm.
Macron has promised that his presidency will usher in an era of new, cleaner politics after a series of scandals involving ministers under his Socialist predecessor Francois Hollande.
Observers say that pledge makes it difficult for the president to keep MoDem in his government because the party is facing allegations it broke European Parliament rules by using funds to pay parliamentary assistants who are actually based in France. — AFP