Macron loses two more ministers from cabinet as ‘scandal’ over party funding starts to bite

TWO more French ministers stepped down yesterday to fight a funding scandal, prompting president Emmanuel Macron to make an unexpectedly large cabinet reshuffle.

The departure of François Bayrou, the justice minister and Marielle de Sarnez, the European affairs minister, took the number of cabinet members who have resigned this week to three.

The first to go, on Tuesday, was defence minister and former MEP Sylvie Goulard. All three belong to Mr Bayrou’s centrist Modem, which is embroiled in a party funding controversy.

Ms de Sarnez said she was leaving the government to take over as head of Modem in the National Assembly.

Mr Macron swept to power with a promise to fight political scandal, but his pledge has been hampered by the fact that Modem, allied to his La République en Marche party, is facing an inquiry into claims that it used EU funds to pay party workers.

Richard Ferrand, Mr Macron’s righthand man during the election campaign, stepped down on Monday amid separate allegations that he had used inside information to secure a lucrative property deal for his wife while head of a mutual health insurance fund.

Mr Ferrand and Ms Goulard have both denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Bayrou had personally outlined a bill to clean up politics. The new law includes plans to stop politicians hiring members of their family and a ban of up to 10 years for MPS and senators convicted of corruption or fraud.

In a press conference, Mr Bayrou, 66, said that while his name was never cited in the political funding probe: “I have no doubt that I was the real target of these denunciations.”

The departures forced Mr Macron to reshuffle his month-old cabinet. Mr Bayrou was replaced by jurist Nicole Belloubet; former Socialist minister Florence Parly took over defence, and Nathalie Loiseau, an academic administrator, took European affairs.