French minister resigns as post-poll reshuffle gets serious
French Armed Forces Minister Sylvie Goulard has resigned in the light of a fake-jobs inquiry into her party and President Emmanuel Macron has asked Interior Minister Richard Ferrand to quit ahead of a post-election reshuffle. The choice of a new cabinet was supposed to be a formality but is turning into a much bigger shake-up.
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Macron accepted Goulard's resignation on Tuesday afternoon, he and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe having discussed the question with her over the last few days, according to sources in his office.
Goulard said in a statement that she wanted to "freely demonstrate my good faith", referring to the inquiry into accusations that her party, Modem, had used European parliament funds to pay party employees for unrelated work.
Modem waged a joint electoral campaign with Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) and had three ministers in the interim cabinet formed agter the presidential election.
Former MEP and one-time environment minister Corinne Lepage was questioned in relation to the investigation on Tuesday.
Speaking before Goulard's announcement, another Modem member, European Affairs Minister Marielle de Sarnez, said that she might quit the government to become the leader of the party's parliamentary group.
Bayrou intends to stay
The only other Modem member in the outgoing government is Justice Minister François Bayrou, who is the party's founder and leader.
He, too, is concerned by the inquiry and further compromised his position earlier this month by phoning journalists at Radio France to complain about their investigation of the question.
But he seems to have no intention of quitting.
He told Le Monde newspaper that Goulard's decision was "strictly personal" and Philippe has said that he should stay in the cabinet.
Bayrou has at times proved a troublesome ally, however, and questions are being asked in LREM's ranks about his future in the government.
"That the justice minister responsible for proposing the law on morality in public life is himself under investigation is a bit out of order," one LREM MP told Le Monde.
Even though Bayrou was one of Macron's earliest allies, Modem may have fallen victim to the president's strategy of "trying to destabilise [the other parties] by opening my arms to them" and its presence looks likely to be drastically reduced in the new cabinet.
Ferrand asked to change jobs
Also absent from the next cabinet will be Interior Minister Richard Ferrand, who is under preliminary investigation for favouritism towards his partner in a property deal and accused of other misconduct.
Macron has asked him to leave his post to become leader of LREM's parliamentary group.
MPs say that a transfer to such a powerful position is not really a demotion, however.
"We denounce the hypocrisy of giving the leadership of a group that claims to be the embodiment of reform to a man who has been seriously called into question," Bernard Accoyer of the mainstream-right Republicans said.
Centre-right politician Philippe Vigier accused Macron of "exfiltrating" the minister, pointing out that he has not been elected by the parliamentary group and appears to have been appointed by "an act of authority of the president of the republic".
Ferrand, who insists that he did nothing wrong, has said that he will not invoke parliamentary immunity to protect himself from investigation.
Republicans split over attitude to Macron
The Republicans may be in for a new charm offensive with the reshuffle.
Philippe, who defected from the party himself, on Tuesday said that more junior ministers' posts could be created and that some might be open to members of his former party.
The right-wing party's MPs look set to split, with the self-styled "constructive" wing planning to set up their own parliamentary group, which would back the government on some questions.
One of their number, Laure de Raudière, said on Tuesday that the group will have about 40 members, including members of small centre-right parties.
Socialists discuss confidence vote
Still reeling from the loss of 224 seats in last weekend's election, the Socialist Party's national executive met on Tuesday to decide its approach to the Macron government.
The committee is now larger than the party's 29-strong parliamentary group but several of its 80 members, including former ministers Stéphane Le Foll and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, were not present.
Having lost seats and members to LREM, the party now has to decide whether it will vote in favour of the new government, which will be put to parliament for endorsement at the beginning of July.
Tuesday morning's meeting decided not to vote in favour, although it remained unclear whether that would mean voting against or abstaining.
The party's MPs were due to meet in the afternoon.
A National Council will take the final decision on Saturday.
Mélenchon vows to fight labour reform
There was no doubt where the 17 newly elected MPs from the left-wing France Unbowed movement stood when they arrived at parliament for the first time on Tuesday.
Shouting "Resistance!" and making clenched-fist salutes, they vowed to fight changes to labour law and mocked Macron's claim to be above left-right divisions.
"They are right-wing," France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon declared. "The prime minister is self-confessed right-winger, and openly pro-nuclear, the labour minister is right-wing."
The party could form a joint group with the Communist Party if some "misunderstandings" that occured during the parliamentary and presidential elections are ironed out, Mélenchon said earlier.
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