Probe piles pressure on Macron minister
FRENCH prosecutors said yesterday they had launched a preliminary investigation into a property deal involving one of President Emmanuel Macron’s ministers, on the same day his new government outlines a bill on cleaning up politics.
The announcement by prosecutors in western France adds to the pressure on Richard Ferrand, who has rebuffed calls to resign over allegations of favouritism towards his common-law wife in a lucrative deal with a health insurance fund.
The affair has embarrassed Macron, 39, who swept to power on May 7 on a pledge to rejuvenate the corruptionplagued political class -- a win he aims to cement in parliamentary elections.
It comes as Justice Minister Francois Bayrou prepares to set out the contents of the president’s first highly anticipated bill, which will tighten ethical standards for holders of public office.
Ferrand, one of Macron’s first prominent backers and formerly secretary-general of the president’s Republique En Marche (Republic on the Move) party, has denied any wrongdoing.
He told France Inter radio on Wednesday: “I am an honest man. Everything I have done in my professional life is legal, public and transparent.”
The Canard Enchaine investigative newspaper reported last week that an insurance fund Ferrand headed in his native Brittany agreed in 2011 to rent a building from his partner, Sandrine Doucen, and carry out renovations that boosted its value.
Ferrand, a 54-year-old minister for territorial cohesion who is running for re-election to parliament, said Doucen made the fund the best offer and he had no say in the matter.
Prosecutors initially waved away the allegations, but yesterday said they changed their minds in light of “extra elements that could implicate” Ferrand after a complaint from anti-corruption association Anticor.