37 ministers post assets
FM ‘wealthiest’
PARIS, April 15, (Agencies): French ministers disclosed their personal wealth for the first time on Monday, in a move President Francois Hollande hopes will restore confidence in his scandalhit Socialist government.
The assets — property, shares, life insurance or vehicles — of 37 ministers and of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault were published online on the website http://www.declarations-patrimoine.gouvernement.fr/.
With the economy stagnant, unemployment on the rise and the government slashing spending, senior officials admit the move is risky and could create resentment by unmasking several fortuned ministers.
But the government has pushed ahead in the hopes the measure will help turn the page on a damaging scandal over tax fraud charges laid against ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac after he admitted having a secret foreign bank account.
According to the revelations, foreign minister Laurent Fabius is among the wealthiest — owning three properties worth a total of 3.9 million euros ($5.1 million) — while Ayrault has two houses and a garage.
Hollande himself did not make a new assets declaration Monday, as he already released details of his wealth when elected president.
At the time he declared 1.17 million euros in assets, including a house in the southern town of Mougins and two apartments in Cannes, though he is still paying 1,500 euros a month on loans.
The move has sparked widespread debate in France, where personal finances are rarely discussed and — unlike in the United States where politicians often publish their tax returns — the wealth of public officials has long been considered a private matter.
Also: PARIS: French police arrested dozens of protesters against samesex marriage on Monday as leftwing lawmakers brought forward the deadline for the adoption of a law that will allow gays to tie the knot.
One of France’s most important social reforms since the abolition of the death penalty in 1981 has majority backing in opinion polls but opponents have grown increasingly vocal as legislation edges towards approval in the Socialistcontrolled parliament.
Around 70 people were arrested early on Monday and placed in custody after they tried to set up a campsite outside the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, near the banks of the Seine river, a police official said.
Another 19 protesters were stopped by police for identity checks late on Sunday as they waited for Interior Minister Manuel Valls to leave a concert hall in the capital.
Disclosure
Lawmakers on both the right and left have decried the move and the government expects a tough battle when it attempts to have the disclosure rule extended to parliamentarians in a bill to be introduced on April 24.
The head of the main opposition right-wing UMP, Jean-Francois Cope, said Monday that the measure would only “create tensions” in French society.
“The only consequence of all of this voyeurism will be that a certain number of people — businesspeople, artisans, professionals — will no longer want to engage in public life,” he told BFMTV.
Close scrutiny is expected to fall on several ministers suspected of having significant wealth, including Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, a well-known art-lover whose father was an antiques dealer.
The minister for the elderly, Michele Delaunay, on Monday disclosed family assets of 5.4 million euros ($7 million), recognising that her wealth would put her in an uncomfortable position.
“It is significant wealth. And it will be difficult to understand for the majority of the French, who are facing hard times,” she said in an interview with the daily Sud-Ouest.
Delaunay, the former head of a cancer clinic, said she and her husband had acquired their four homes and significant savings over lifetimes of work as well as through inheritance.
She said revealing their assets had been a “real challenge” but that she supported the disclosure measure.