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French Prime Minister works to reassure Socialist party amidst rising discontent

France’s Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault made a call to his fellow socialists to surmount the Cahuzac affair, which saw the country’s ex-Budget Minister charged with tax fraud last week. During a meeting of the National Council of the Socialist Party in Paris on Saturday, Ayrault said he would work to uphold proposed transparency measures as well as the direction of economic policy.

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
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Ayrault rejected calls by several of his fellow socialists, notably National Assembly President Claude Bartolone, to nix Hollande’s proposed transparency measures, which would force elected officials to make their personal assets public.

Ayrault argued that 25 of the 27 European Union member countries already had such transparency measures in place.

“I hear people say that making personal assets public would result in a rise in populism. I think the opposite is true,” Ayrault said.

The Prime Minister said the right wing did not seem to want to move forward with implementing transparency measures to increase the public’s confidence in government. Instead, he said they have turned attention to other issues, like their opposition to the bill to legalise gay marriage.

“We have just been dealt a huge shock,” said Ayrault. “But we will respond to French people’s demands.”

The climate within the Socialist party has been in turmoil since ex-Budget Minister Jérome Cahuzac was found to have a secret Swiss bank account holding 600,000 euros.

The suggestion by Harlem Désir, president of the Socialist party, to hold a referendum on making politics more transparent has not been well-received by party members, including seemingly, President François Hollande.

 

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