Top Macron ally quits French government

Second minister from centrist party to resign amid fund scandal

Mr Francois Bayrou is a veteran centrist figure who was a major backer of Mr Emmanuel Macron during his presidential election campaign.
Mr Francois Bayrou is a veteran centrist figure who was a major backer of Mr Emmanuel Macron during his presidential election campaign. PHOTO: REUTERS

PARIS • French Justice Minister Francois Bayrou, a key ally of President Emmanuel Macron, yesterday said he was quitting the government as his party battles a funding scandal.

The move means Mr 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 pro-business reform agenda.

Mr Bayrou's small centrist MoDem party was in an alliance with Mr Macron's 14-month-old Republic on the Move (REM) movement, and Mr 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.

Mr Macron hopes to quickly complete a partial reshuffle of his month-old government following a parliamentary election at the weekend that gave him and MoDem a commanding majority.

But with Mr Macron's REM party alone winning 308 seats in the 577-seat 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," Mr Bayrou told Agence France-Presse.

Mr 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 that it broke European Parliament rules by using funds to pay parliamentary assistants who are actually based in France.

Another key MoDem figure, Defence Minister Sylvie Goulard, announced on Tuesday that she was resigning because she could not remain in the Cabinet with a potential investigation hanging over the party.

MoDem's third representative in the government, European Affairs Minister Marielle de Sarnez, is also set to quit, a party source said.

Mr Bayrou, a veteran centrist figure in France's political landscape, was a key backer of Mr Macron's movement during the presidential campaign, and his support was crucial in lending legitimacy to the inexperienced 39-year-old.

When Mr Bayrou, 66, threw his weight behind Mr Macron's fledgling movement, the future president hailed it as a "turning point" in his campaign.

Mr Bayrou's decision to quit was a "personal choice" which "simplifies the situation", said government spokesman Christophe Castaner. "He wanted to defend himself in this affair," Mr Castaner added.

The opposition Republicans seized on the resignations, calling them "a political scandal" and "a major government crisis". "A quarter of the government has gone," said Mr Laurent Wauquiez, the conservative party's vice-president.

Mr Bayrou, who ran three times for president, has dismissed the allegations, saying there had "never been" fake jobs among his party's European Parliament staff.

Paris prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation this month into the funding claims.

Mr Macron has said he wants to restore confidence in politicians, which had been severely rattled by allegations that conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon paid his wife around €900,000 (S$1.4 million) to work as his parliamentary assistant with little evidence she performed many tasks.

Fillon, who has been charged over the scandal, strongly denies the allegations.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 22, 2017, with the headline Top Macron ally quits French government. Subscribe